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I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, § 

chap n^i . 



THE 

CHINESE MASSACRE 

AT 

ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING TERRITORY, 

SEPTEMBER 2, 1885. 



BOSTON : 

FRANKLIN PRESS: RAND, A VERY, & COMPANY, 
117 Franklin Street. 
1886. 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE 
AT ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING TERRITORY, 

SEPT. 2, 1885. 



Notwithstanding occasional indications of a feeling of 
discontent and distrust in the minds of certain classes of the 
company's employes, the executive officers of the Union 
Pacific were, in the latter part of August, 1885, encouraged 
to hope that their efforts to adjust all differences had met 
with a considerable measure of success. There were no 
serious causes of complaint alleged against the company 
or its officials; the only questions at issue between the 
employer and the employed related to matters of minor 
importance, and were supposed to be easy of settlement. 

Under these circumstances, the utmost surprise was felt 
when, on the 3d of September, a telegraph message was 
received in Boston to the effect that armed men to the num- 
ber of a hundred or more had on the previous day driven 
all the Chinese miners employed by the company out of 
the coal-mines at Rock Springs, Wyoming : had killed and 
wounded a large number of them ; had plundered and burned 
their quarters, including some fifty houses owned by the com- 
pany ; had stopped all work at the mines ; had ordered certain 
officers of the company's mining department to leave town 
at an hour's notice ; and now demanded, as the condition 
upon which they would permit the resumption of work in 
the mines, a pledge that the Chinese should be no longer 
employed. Later advices on that and the following day not 
only confirmed the first reports, but increased the number 
of killed and wounded, and the extent of the destruction of 
property. It appeared that so many of the six hundred 

l 



2 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



Chinese computed to have been in the camp, as escaped mas- 
sacre, had fled into the mountains and desert in the vicinity 
of Rock Springs, where they were in danger of perishing 
from terror and starvation ; while the armed rioters in pos- 
session of the town threatened them with death if they re- 
turned to it. It was reported that the Chinese at the Grass 
Creek mines in Utah had been ordered to leave at twenty 
minutes notice ; and a telegram from the sheriff of Uintah 
County, Wyoming, brought the intelligence that a repetition 
of the outrages was expected at the Almy mines near Evans- 
ton unless the civil authorities were strengthened by troops. 

Meantime, the Governor of Wyoming Territory had tele- 
graphed the President of the United States as follows : — 

Evanston, Wyoming, 4th. Unlawful combinations and conspiracies 
exist among coal-miners and others, in the Uintah and Sweetwater Coun- 
ties in this Territory, which prevent individuals and corporations from 
enjoyment and protection of their property, and obstruct execution of 
laws. Open insurrection at Rock Springs ; property burned ; sixteen 
dead bodies found ; probably over fifty more under ruins. Seven hun- 
dred Chinamen driven from town, and have taken refuge at Evanston, and 
are ordered to leave there. Sheriff powerless to make necessary arrests 
and protect life and property, unless supported by organized bodies of 
armed men. Wyoming has no territorial militia; therefore I respect- 
fully and earnestly request the aid of United States troops, not only 
to protect the mails and mail-routes, but that they may be instructed to 
support civil authorities until order is restored, criminals arrested, and 
the suffering relieved. 

Acting under orders from the War Department, Gen. 
Howard, in command at Omaha of the Department of the 
Platte, sent four companies of troops to the scene of disturb- 
ance : and on the 5th information was received that about 
eighty troops were stationed at Rock Springs, and as many 
more at Evanston, with orders to protect the United States 
mails. 

On the 5th, Gov. Warren telegraphed a request that 
" the Secretary of War be informed that the [Union Pacific 
Railway] Company cannot enjoy the use and possession of its 
property unless troops assist the civil authority in making 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 3 



arrests in order to weed out all dangerous criminals and agi- 
tators, and provide protection for reasonable employes." He 
subsequently telegraphed the President from Evanston as 
follows : — 

Referring to my several late telegrams, I respectfully submit that the 
unlawful organized mob in possession of coal-mines at Almy, near here, 
will not permit Chinamen to approach their own home, property, or 
employment. From the nature of the outbreak, sheriff of county can- 
not rally sufficient posse, and territorial government cannot sufficiently 
aid him. Insurrectionists know, through newspapers and despatches, 
that troops will not interfere under present orders ; and moral effect of 
presence of troops is destroyed. If troops were known to have orders to 
assist sheriff's posse in case driven back, I am quite sure civil authorities 
could restore order without actual use of soldiers. But unless United 
States Government can find way to relieve us immediately, I believe 
worse scenes than those at Rock Springs will follow, and all Chinamen 
driven from the Territory. I beg an early reply and information regard- 
ing the attitude of the United States Government. 

On the 7th, notice was served on the Chinese miners at 
Almy mines, near Evanston, not to enter the mines, or they 
would be fired on. Beckwith, Quinn, & Co., through whom 
the Chinese were employed, were ordered by the white miners 
to pay off all Chinamen, and get them out of town to avoid 
trouble. The mines at Almy were accordingly closed. 

This, then, was the situation on the 8th of September : — 
All the mines at Rock Springs and Almy were closed, and 
production had ceased. A portion of the Union Pacific em- 
ployes at Rock Springs had set upon another portion ; had 
killed in cold blood some forty or fifty ; had pillaged and 
burned their quarters, and driven between four and five 
hundred of them out into the inhospitable wastes ; and now, 
with arms in their hands, were threatening death to any who 
returned. The company's officers, who were not in sym- 
pathy with the purposes of the rioters, were powerless ; 
indeed, several of them had been driven from the place, 
under threats of death if they remained. The civil authori- 
ties proclaimed themselves unable to protect the property 
of the company, or the lives of its employes. They could 



4 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



not make arrests, preserve order, or enforce the laws. Upon 
the urgent and reiterated requests of the Governor of the 
Territory, small bodies of troops had been stationed at the 
points where disturbances had occurred or were threatened, 
with instructions to protect the property of the Government, 
and the mails in actual transmission. Subsequently, upon 
the demand of the Chinese minister at Washington, under 
specific treaty provisions, the military authorities were in- 
structed to furnish protection to the Chinamen ; and it is 
accordingly a noticeable fact, that the Union Pacific Railway 
Company was indebted, for the protection of its property and 
the persons of its employes, to the terms of the treaty with a 
foreign power, and the interference of a foreign minister. 

Until the military authorities had received definite instruc- 
tions, it was not deemed prudent or safe to undertake the 
return of the Chinese miners who had been driven out at 
Rock Springs. But on the 9th, one week from the date of 
the massacre, six hundred of them, who had been gathered 
up at various points along the railroad, were brought back 
under military protection, and placed in temporary quarters 
near the site of the camp which had been burned. 

Meanwhile newspaper reports of what had taken place 
were attracting general attention. These reports were of the 
most confused and contradictory character. Some of them 
represented that trouble had been brewing for a long time 
between the white miners and the Chinese ; that the labor 
organizations had taken the issue up, and prepared for a 
general strike to bring matters to a crisis; but that the Rock 
Springs miners had precipitated it by an outbreak, which had 
not been included in the programme. The impression that a 
general anti-Chinese demonstration throughout the Territories 
and on the Pacific coast had been planned, was strengthened 
by the circumstance that immediately after the news of the 
outbreak reached the West coast and intervening points, 
demonstrations of a similar character took place. At sev- 
eral places in Idaho and Montana, Chinamen were ordered 
to leave , in Washington Territory there were manifestations 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 5 

of a lawless spirit, organized violence being threatened at 
Seattle, while two or more Chinamen were killed at a camp 
in the vicinity. Certain newspapers seized the opportunity 
to misrepresent the facts, in order to hold the Union Pacific 
company responsible for whatever had taken place. Thus, 
in one paper published in Omaha, what purported to be a 
" special despatch " from Rock Springs was printed, in which 
the statement was made that a strike for an advance in wages 
had been made by the white miners a few days before the 
occurrence, and that the anti-Chinese feeling, which had 
existed for a long time, burst all restraint " when groups of 
Chinese miners were seen advancing to the shafts, in charge 
of the Union Pacific bosses, to take the places at cheap wages 
of the strikers." The account goes on to say that " the fore- 
noon passed without a demonstration of the rage that was 
gathering in the groups of miners who discussed the situa- 
tion in the saloons and other convenient places. By eleven 
o'clock the strikers had become furious from liquor and 
brooding, and it was at once determined to resist the return 
of the Chinese to the mines at noon," 

This statement was devoid of truth. There had been no 
strike, no "groups of Chinese miners" who took "the places 
at cheap wages of the strikers," nor is there any evidence 
that " the strikers had become furious from liquor and 
brooding." On the contrary, the local Rock Springs news- 
paper, which was in close sympathy with the anti-Chinese 
feeling, said in an " extra " in which an account of the mas- 
sacre was given : " The action of the saloons in closing up 
is to be commended, and it cannot be said that a 'drunken 
mob ' drove out the Chinamen. Every one was sober, and 
we did not see a case of drunkenness." 

This was thought highly creditable to those concerned in 
the transaction. No one was drunk. It was a sober mob ! 
It is fit and proper, while correcting the misrepresentation 
that there was a strike or any warning of a strike, or that 
the Union Pacific company had any intimation of pending 
trouble, to relieve those concerned in the massacre, of the 



6 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



reproach of having entered upon it in the heat of passion 
or the rage of intoxication. 

Naturally, an affair involving the killing of between thirty 
and forty men, the expulsion from their homes of five or six 
hundred human beings, and the burning and plundering of a 
hundred houses, attracted general attention. East of the 
Missouri River, the voice of the press was outspoken and 
unanimous in condemnation. The universal judgment was 
that such acts admitted neither of palliation nor excuse. The 
fact that the victims were of an alien race, not only un- 
armed with weapons of physical defence, but unprotected by 
the shield of citizenship, — their only dependence being the 
good faith of the United States Government in the fulfilment 
of its treaty obligations, — was commented upon as a na- 
tional disgrace ; nor did the somewhat deliberate action of 
the federal authorities in ordering troops to the scene of dis- 
turbance escape criticism and censure. Had it then been 
stated that not one of those concerned in the outrage would 
ever be brought to justice, and that although these things 
took place in the light of day, and in plain view of several 
hundred spectators, no grand jury would ever indict a single 
person concerned in them, it would have been pronounced 
a libel upon the administration of justice in any . civilized 
country. Had it been added that*the action of the Union 
Pacific Railway Company, in gathering up terror-stricken 
survivors, who otherwise would have perished in the deserts, 
and restoring them to the places whence they had been 
so ruthlessly expelled, would be openly discussed by its 
employes as a grievance to be met by vigorous protest, while 
in the opinion of many it furnished sufficient cause for a 
general strike ; had it been said that the failure of the grand 
jury to find a true bill against any of the parties engaged in 
the murders, would be received with applause in the county 
court-room, and that the arrested persons would be met with 
an ovation on their return to Rock Springs ; that a formal 
demand would be made upon the company for the summary 
discharge of all Chinese miners, and the re-employment of 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 7 



the men who had killed, plundered, and driven them out ; 
that other employes who had had no hand in the outrage 
would insist on this as the price of their continuance at work, 
and that the company, for obeying the ordinary dictates of 
humanity, would be condemned by a considerable number of 
persons, as wantonly aggravating the feelings of the citizens 
of Rock Springs, and provoking them to further deeds of 
violence, — had these things been said when the affair was 
fresh in the public mind, they would have been pronounced a 
monstrous calumny upon a perhaps rude, but still a Christian 
community. Yet these things happened. 

The tone of the public press west of the Missouri River 
will be best indicated by a few extracts from its editorial 
pages. Their main purpose, it will be observed, is to fasten 
the responsibility for the outbreak upon the " grasping and 
greedy corporation," which, by the introduction of Chinese 
labor at a low rate of wages, and by systematic tyranny over 
the white miners, provoked the latter bej T ond endurance and 
drove them to heroic remedies. 

" The Omaha Bee " in the course of a long article on " the 
attempt of the Union Pacific managers to evade responsibil- 
ity," said, — 

In Wyoming, as it was in Pennsylvania, the coal-miners are com- 
pelled to trade at the railroad company's stores, operated by Beckwith, 
Quinn & Co., by whom they are charged exorbitant prices. Not satisfied 
with having a monopoly in the coal trade in that Territory, the greedy 
corporation maintains a monopoly on the merchandise trade in all its 
tributary mining towns. Between low wages for labor, and the outrageous 
prices for provisions and other necessaries, the miners are ground down 
until they find it difficult to live even if with the strictest economy. 
None but Chinamen can stand any such pressure. As they can live on 
almost nothing, they can afford to work for the Union Pacific contractors 
at low wages, and pay high prices for what little they buy and consume. 
Under all these circumstances, the w T hite miners have been driven to des- 
peration ; and becoming convinced that the Union Pacific was attempting 
to either reduce them to the level of the Chinese, or gradually freeze 
them out altogether by the importation of Chinese, they resorted to force 
to expel the obnoxious element. 

Who was mainly to blame for the massacre? The maddened miners' 



8 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



mob, or the men who got up the system that drove these men to murder- 
ous desperation ? The agents of the company have at all times encour- 
aged Chinamen, as well as Mormon miners, and in this way have held 
down all others as with a rod of iron. That the Union Pacific contractors 
have systematically tyrannized over the white miners, and treated them 
like slaves, and subjected them to all sorts of annoyances and indignities, 
there is but little doubt. We have denounced in unmeasured terms the 
action of the white miners in slaughtering the Chinese, because the Chi- 
namen were not responsible for being alive, nor for being employed in 
the mines. But the incentive for the crime was furnished by their 
employers and a giant monopoly, which has destroyed all possible chance 
for competition and fair dealing in Wyoming. The lesson taught by 
the desperate miners, bloody though it was, should not go unheeded by the 
Union Pacific. That company should as soon as possible abandon 
the employment of Chinese ; and if it will persist in monopolizing the 
coal-mining business, let it at least have the decency to do away with its 
stores, and permit competition in the necessaries of life and miners' sup- 
plies. Give the white miners a chance to buy where they can buy the 
cheapest, and there will be less cause for complaint. 

The Rock Springs massacre presents another phase which calls for 
serious reflection. At the instance of the railroad, which has had a 
mortgage on nearly every governor of Wyoming, federal troops have 
been called for to suppress the insurrection, and to prevent a further out- 
break. No sooner did the troops put in an appearance than the Company 
resumed its tyrannical policy, and the announcement was made that the 
coolies will be put to work again under the protection of Uncle Sam's 
bayonets. 

Now, while it is the duty of the government to suppress insurrection 
and rebellion, and enforce law and order in the Territories, it becomes a 
serious question whether the army is to be employed as a police at the 
dictates of a corporation, which was mainly instrumental in causing 
the outbreak b}^ a lawless system which is unrepublican and contrary to 
the spirit of our institutions. Is the army to be degraded into a sort of 
slave-driver? The slave-drivers in the South in their palmiest days never 
presumed that the army should be employed as a posse to be placed over 
their chattels, and keep them from mutiny. 

"•The Cheyenne Sun " of Sept. 11 said, — 

What does it mean, when it is the general belief, as indicated in the 
correspondence and other information sent from Rock Springs and Green 
River, that no grand jury of sixteen men, drawn from the white citizens 
and tax-payers of Sweetwater County, will be found to indict men 
charged with the heinous crimes of murder, robbery, and arson, espe- 
cially when these men thus charged are the few picked out from the hun- 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 9 



dred or more who are claimed to have been engaged in the commission of 
these crimes ? Will any man dare say that it means that law is not 
respected in Sweetwater County? Is it not rather incontrovertible evi- 
dence that the sixteen grand jurors, one and all, recognize that the real 
cause of these crimes was the violation of law higher than written stat- 
utes, — the law of justice? 

"The Laramie Boomerang," commenting on the circum- 
stance that United States troops had been sent to Rock 
Springs, said : — 

The United States troops are on the grounds in full force, and will 
remain for some time, but it is by no means supposed that the end of the 
trouble has been seen. From the Union Pacific authorities it has been 
declared that the white miners must leave Rock Springs, and this has 
been repeated in all the Eastern exchanges. Does the Union Pacific 
company, the firm of Beckwith, Quinn & Co., and other Chinese sympa- 
thizers, realize the task they are undertaking? If they are so blind as 
to expect to rule by the use of bayonets and bullets, they deserve the fate 
which is surely reserved for them. The massacre ot the Chinamen was 
the inevitable result of the competition between the whites and the for- 
eign race. It is easy to say, " We will enforce our rule by the use of 
troops," but soon dynamite and the torch will be called mto requisition, 
and the railroad company will find too late that they have made a bar- 
gain with the devil. The Boomerang has already declared itself against 
the outrages of the Rock Springs miners, but it now declares that the 
foolish action in putting back the Mongolian miners will meet with a 
swift and terrible retribution. There maybe a temporary peace at Rock 
Springs, but it will be succeeded by war all along the line. The senti- 
ment against the Chinese miners, the Beckwith Quinn Company, and 
the Union Pacific, is stronger than is imagined, and exists everywhere. 
It will break out where least expected, and will add to the curse that rests 
upon the railroad company. It is true that a coal famine threatens the 
West, and the blame is laid where it belongs. The reparation will come 
when a new road comes into Wyoming. It is sure that the whites will 
not yield precedence to the Chinese dogs. They will be compelled to 
leave this country, peace will be restored, even at the cost of bloodshed, 
and the trouble that may come will be chargeable to a monopoly that has 
Wrung the country of its life-blood, that is now trying to enforce a tyran- 
nical rule, which is to starve white men to support Chinamen, that tries 
to capture the courts and the legislatures everywhere, and which should 
be crushed down without further, delay. The outbreak at Rock Springs 
is the beginning only of a revolt which will end when this enemy of 
Wyoming and of every State and Territory it passes through has been 



10 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



treated as it deserves, crushed clown, and its power taken from it forever. 
The time is at hand for this result. Let the workingmen and the people 
show their hand. There never was such a royal opportunity offered to 
rid the country of this octopus. If the white men permit the grievous 
wrong that is threatened at Rock Springs, then let them surrender for 
ever all hope for the future. There should be no more massacres, but 
there should be no backing down. 

Iii another place the same paper spoke as follows concern- 
ing the possibility that the massacre might be made the 
subject of a Congressional investigation : — 

There will be no senatorial inquiry into the massacre of Chinamen 
in Wyoming. No impassioned orator will recount the incidents of the 
bloody deed, and no party platform-builder will " demand " any thing con- 
cerning it. When Congress assembles, no investigation, costing thou- 
sands of dollars, will be ordered, and no newspaper anxious to foment 
strife will employ romancing correspondents to make the case worse than 
it really was. Why ? Because the Chinaman has no vote and no friends. 
He is not closely bound up in the history of either political party. Xo- 
body is anxious to force him on other people as their equal or superior; 
and, above all, no party capital is to be made of his woes, though his 
blood may flow in rivers. 

Yet back of this Wyoming massacre is a question of greater impor- 
tance to Americans, in general, than any of the antecedents of common 
assault-and-battery cases at the South can have. The Chinamen were 
at work for a government subsidized company, and had been hired by it 
for the purpose of depressing, the wages of white labor. Murderous and 
shameful as was the attack made on these wretched creatures, it was not 
more villanous than the attack which the Union Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany made on the rights of American labor. When the rich men or the 
rich corporations, that enter into arrangements of this character for the 
purpose of reviving a species of slavery in America, find that they are 
looked upon as contemptible skinflints, and devilish oppressors of the 
human race, it is probable that there will be fewer occasions for such 
butcheries as that in Wyoming. The blame for the horror rests prima- 
rily on the corporation, which sought without proper excuse to reduce the 
American working-man to the position of a peon. 

The story in detail of the massacre from the point of view 
of those who, while deprecating any resort to violence, were 
still of the opinion that the end justified the means, was told 
by the local journal,- " The Rock Springs Independent.'' It 
may be said that all inquiries concerning the actual occur- 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 11 



rences of Sept. 2, by the company's representative or the 
government directors in the subsequent investigation, were 
answered on the part of the white miners by a reference to 
this account. It may be considered accordingly as their own 
version of the affair, It is as follows : — 

THE TRUE STORY OF THE CHINESE EXODUS. 

On Wednesday, Sept. 2, all the Chinese in Rock Springs to the num- 
ber of about six hundred were driven out of camp by the long-suffering 
miners. The true story of their expulsion is as follows : — 

The feeling against them has been getting stronger all summer. 
The fact that the white men had been turned off the sections, and hun- 
dreds of white men were seeking in vain for work, while the Chinese 
were being shipped in by the car-load, and given work, strengthened the 
feeling against them. It needed but little to incite this feeling into an 
active crusade against them, and that little came Wednesday morning at 
6. All the entries at No. 6 were stopped the first of the month, and Mr. 
Evans, the foreman, marked off a number of rooms in the entries. In 
No. 5 entry eight Chinamen were working, and four rooms were marked 
off for them. In No 13 Mr. Whitehouse and Mr. Jenkins were work- 
ing, and Evans told them they could have rooms in that entry or in No. 
11 or 5. They chose No. 5; and when they went to work Tuesday, Dave 
Brookman, who was acting as pit boss in Mr. Francis's absence, told them 
to take the first rooms marked off. He supposed the Chinamen had 
begun work on their rooms, and that Whitehouse and Jenkins would take 
the next rooms beyond them. But as the two first rooms of the entry 
had not been commenced, Whitehouse took one, not knowing that they 
had been given to the Chinamen. He went up town in the afternoon, 
and in his absence the two Chinamen came in, and went to work in the 
room Whitehouse had started. Wednesday morning, when White- 
house came to work, two Chinamen were in possession of what he con- 
sidered his room. He ordered them out, but they wouldn't leave what 
they thought was their room. High words followed, then blows. The 
Chinese from other rooms came rushing in, as did the whites, and a fight 
ensued with picks, shovels, drills, and needles for weapons. The China- 
men were worsted, four of them being badly wounded, one of whom has 
since died. A number of white men were severely bruised and cut. An 
attempt was made to settle the matter, but the men were excited, and 
bound to go out. * They accordingly came out, armed themselves with 
•rifles, shot-guns, and revolvers to protect themselves from the Chinese, 
they said, and started up town. After coming through Chinatown, they 
left their guns behind them, and marched down the front street, and dis- 
persed about noon. * 



12 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



In the mean time all was excitement in Chinatown. The flag was 
hoisted as a warning, and the Chinamen gathered to their quarters from 
all parts of the town, being gently urged by chunks of coal and brick- 
bats from a crowd of boys. After dinner all the saloons were closed, and 
a majority of the men from all the mines gathered in the streets. Most 
of them had fire-arms, although knives, hatchets, and clubs were in the 
hands of some. It was finally decided that John must go, then and there ; 
and the small army of sixty or seventy armed men, with as many more 
stragglers, went down the track towards Chinatown. On the way they 
routed out a number of Chinese section-men, who fled for Chinatown, 
followed by a few stray shots. When the crowd got as far as No. 3 
switch, they sent forward a committee of three to warn the Chinamen to 
leave in an hour. Word was sent back that they would go, and very soon 
there was a running to and fro, and gathering of bundles, that showed 
that John was. preparing to move out. But the men grew impatient. 
They thought that John was too slow in getting out, and might be pre- 
paring to defend his position. In about half an hour an advance was 
made on the enemy's works, with much shooting and shouting. The hint 
was sufficient. Without offering any resistance, the Chinamen snatched 
up whatever they could lay their hands on, and started east on the run. 
Some were bareheaded and barefooted; others carried a small bundle in 
a handkerchief, while a number had rolls of bedding. They fled like a 
flock of frightened sheep, scrambling and tumbling down the steep banks 
of Bitter Creek, then through the sage-brush, and over the railroad, and 
up into the hills east of Burning Mountain. Some of the men were en- 
gaged in searching the houses, and driving out the stray Chinamen who 
were in hiding, while others followed up the retreating Chinamen, encour- 
aging their flight with showers of bullets fired over their heads. 

All the stores in town were closed, and men, women, and children 
were out watching the hurried exit of John Chinamen, and every one 
seemed glad to see them on the wing. Soon a black smoke was seen 
issuing from the peak of a house in " Hong Kong," then from another, 
and very soon eight or ten of the largest of the houses were in flames. 
Half choked with fire and smoke, numbers of Chinamen came rushing 
from the, burning buildings, and, with blankets and bedquilts over their 
heads to protect themselves from stray rifle-shots, they followed their 
retreating brothers into the hills at the top of their speed. After com- 
pleting their work here, the crowd came across to Ah Lee's laundry. 
There was no sign of a Chinaman here at first, but a vigorous search 
reveaied one hidden away in a corner. But he would not dare to come 
out. Then the roof was broken in, and shots fired to scare him out, but 
a shot in return showed that the Chinaman was armed. A rush through 
the door followed, then came a scuffle and a number of shots ; and look- 
ing through an opening, a dead Chinaman was seen on the floor with 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 13 



blood and brains oozing from a terrible wound in the back of his 
head. 

Foreman Evans was next visited, and told to leave on the evening 
train. lie quietly said he would go. He afterwards asked to be allowed 
to stay till next day to get his things ready, but a vote of the men de- 
cided against allowing this favor, and about four hours after Mr. Evans 
left for the East. The crowd next visited the house of Soo Qui, a boss 
Chinaman, but Soo had gone to Evanston, and only his wife was in the 
house. She came to the door much terrified, and with tearful eyes and 
trembling voice said, " Soo he go. I go to him." The assurance of the 
men that she could stay in the house, and would not be harmed, did not 
calm her fears. She did not like the looks of the armed crowd, and 
gathering a small armful of household treasures she left, and was after- 
wards taken in by a neighbor. Then a few Chinamen working in No. 
1 came out, and were hustled up the hills after their fleeing brothers. 

" Well, gentlemen, the next thing is to give Mr. O'Donnell notice to 
leave, and then go over to No. 6," said one of the men in the crowd. 
But the crowd was slow in departing on this errand. A large number 
seemed to think that this was going too far ; and of the crowd that 
gathered in front of O'Donnell 's store, the majority did not sympathize 
with this move. But at somebody's orders, a note ordering O'Donnell 
to leave was written, and given to Gotsche, his teamster. 

Joe Young, the sheriff, came down from Green River in the evening, 
and guards were out all night to protect the property of the citizens in 
case of a disturbance. But every thing was quiet in town. Over in 
Chinatown, however, the rest of the houses were burned ; the whole 
of them, numbering about forty, being consumed to the ground. The 
Chinese section-house, and also the houses at No. 6, were burned, and 
Chinamen were chased out of nearly all the burning buildings. All the 
night long the sound of rifle and revolver was heard, and the surrounding 
hills were lit by the glare of the burning houses. 



A look around the scenes of the previous day's work revealed some, 
terrible sights Thursday morning. In the smoking cellar of one Chinese 
house the blackened bodies of three Chinamen were seen. Three others 
were in the cellar of another, and four bodies were found near by. From 
the position of some of the bodies, it would seem as if they had begun to 
dig a hole in the cellar to hide themselves ; but the fire overtook them 
when about half way in the hole, burning their lower extremities to crisp, 
and leaving the upper portions of their bodies untouched. At the east 
end of Chinatown another body was found, charred by the flames and 
mutilated by hogs. The smell that arose from the smoking ruins w 7 as 
horribly suggestive of burning flesh. Farther east were the bodies of 



14 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT- ROCK SPRINGS. 



four more Chinamen shot down in their flight; one of them had tumbled 
over the bank, and lay in the creek with face upturned and distorted. 
Still farther, another Chinaman was found, shot through the hips but 
still alive. He had been shot just as he came to the bank, and had fallen 
over and lay close to the edge of the bank. He was taken up town and 
cared for by Dr. Woodruff. Besides this, two others were seriously 
wounded, and many who got away were more slightly hurt. The trains 
to-day have picked up a large number of Chinamen on the track, and 
taken them West. 

Judge Ludvigsen summoned a coroner's jury, who, with Dr. AVood- 
ruff, examined the bodies of the dead Chinamen, and returned a verdict 
that eleven had been burned to death, and four shot, by parties unknown 
to the jury. The bodies were put in rough coffins, and buried in the 
Chinese burying-grounds . 

The action of the saloons in closing up is to be commended, and it 
cannot be said that a "drunken mob " drove out the Chinamen. Every 
one was sober, and we did not see a case of drunkenness. 

While a large number of miners here belong to the Knights of La- 
bor, the work of Wednesday was not done by order of that organization. 
There may have been a determination of making an early attempt to get 
the Chinese out, but not exactly in that way, or at that time. It merely 
needed the trouble at No. 6 to excite the men into a crusade against the 
Chinese. 

The same paper, commenting upon the " uncallecl-for " 
presence of troops at Rock Springs, remarked : — 

Last Saturday morning our citizens were somewhat surprised to see 
a company of soldiers from Fort Steele get off a special train and go into 
camp near the railway at the west end of the town. The troops are sup- 
posed to be here for the protection of property ; but as not a threat or a 
movement has been made against the person or property of a single indi- 
vidual in town since the Chinese were driven out, the presence of the 
' troops was entirely uncalled for. The impression is conveyed that the 
people in Rock Springs are a lawless, bloodthirsty set of people who can 
only be prevented from indiscriminate murder and arson by the presence 
of a body of armed troops. This is entirely false. The removal of the 
Chinese was all that was desired, and when they were driven from town 
the entire purpose of the outbreak was accomplished, and the life and 
property of other people were as safe here as in any other place. 



Commenting upon the "avenging spirit of the Union 
Pacific Railway " in bringing back under military protection 



THE CHINESE. MASS ACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



15 



the survivors of the massacre to their burned and plundered 
camp, the same paper says, — 

The action of the company in bringing back the Chinese means that 
they are to be set to work in the mines, and that American soldiers are to 
prevent them from being again driven out. 

It means that all white miners at Rock Springs, except those abso- 
lutely required, are to be replaced by Chinese labor. 

It means that the company intend to make a " Chinatown " out of 
Rock Springs, as they proposed to the Almy miners last Monday. 

It means that Rock Springs is killed, as far as white men are con- 
cerned, if such a programme is carried out. 

How do our miners and how do our business men like the situation, 
and what are they going to do about it ? 

There is but one thing to do: miners, merchants, and railway em- 
ployes must unite as one man against such a high-handed proceeding. It 
is a matter in which every business man and every workingman along the 
line of the Union Pacific is concerned. 

If the labor organizations of Colorado and Wyoming, backed up by 
the business interest and public sentiment and public press of the country, 
cannot enforce their demand that the Chinese must go, we are much mis- 
taken as to their strength. 

Neither the labor organizations nor public sentiment will uphold 
the brutal murder of the Chinese last week. The punishment of these 
crimes is within the province of the civil authorities, and they will not 
be molested in the prosecution of their duties. But innocent men with 
their families, and the business interest of Rock Springs, must not be 
allowed to suffer through the avenging spirit of the Union Pacific Rail- 
way. Let the demand go up from one end of the Union Pacific to the 
other, THE CHINESE MUST GO. 

If it is a disgrace for a few American miners, aggravated by a long 
course of injustice, to kill a few Chinamen, is it not a more damnable 
disgrace to see a rich and powerful corporation — created and sustained 
by American citizens — claiming and receiving the assistance of Amer- 
ican soldiers to enforce the employment of leprous aliens to the exclusion 
of American workingmen? Why, even the soldiers themselves curse the 
duty which compels them to sustain the alien against the American, 
and no wonder every man in town is hot with indignation at the 
spectacle. 

" The Laramie Boomerang," previous citations from which 
sufficiently indicate its attitude, adds to its account of the 
affair, which does not differ from the above, that " the women 



16 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



handled weapons like men, and used them too. One, who 
had a child in her arms, struck a passing Mongol and knocked 
him down. The baby screamed, and she spanked it, laid it 
on the ground, and .proceeded to smash the fellow in regular 
John L. Sullivan style. Another, so it is said, after the mur- 
der of Ah Lee, jumped on the dead body and stamped on it. 
She was said to have lost a child only a day or so before." 
Concerning the "apathy of the people," it said, — 

There seemed to be, yesterday, an utter indifference on the part of 
nearly every one as to the extent of the loss of life, or the fate of the 
wounded wanderers in the mountains. No effort was made to search the 
smoking cellars for bodies, but men and boys poked about in the ashes 
for the cash-drawers which had been left in the hurried flight, and the 
geese, ducks and swine were driven off. There was no talk of missing 
men who were dying amid the sage-brush, but only of the melted treas- 
ures that might be discovered in the wreck of their dwellings. If there 
was excuse for the forcible expulsion of the heathen, there was none for 
the inaction of the authorities in this matter. The railway company 
and the county officials should have done something. But no: the flames 
and smoke rising from Chinatown alone indicated that any thing unusual 
had occurred. A sabbath-like quiet reigned yesterday in Rock Springs. 
The dead were allowed to rest amid the wreck of their homes, the dying 
to die uncared for wherever they happened to fall fainting in their flight. 

The coroner's jury was empanelled on Thursday afternoon, and re- 
turned a verdict that eleven had been burned to death and four shot by 
parties unknown to the jury. The sixteenth victim was found yesterday, 
and hauled off in a wagon to be put in a pine box and laid beside the 
rest. 

This paper likewise expressed profound astonishment that 
troops should be ordered to Rock Springs, and could not be- 
lieve that the company would be guilty of such folly as to 
undertake to restore the Chinese to their old places. It said, — 

It is impossible to conceive the object in taking troops to Rock 
Springs now, as all was quiet there last night, and not a Chinaman could 
have been dragged near the place with a team of mules. It is not possi- 
ble that the railroad authorities can put the Chinese back to work under 
protection of United States troops. This, in the opinion of all we have 
talked with, would be the height of folly. The moment the troops were 
withdrawn, the old story would be repeated. The Chinese haven't one 
particle of courage. Here less than one hundred men drove off six or 



THE CHINESE MASSACBE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 17 



seven hundred of the foreigners like a drove of sheep. The cowards 
made no resistance except in a single case. This, too, when, as was 
stated by the miners, they had been drilling with pikes, swords, and 
knives, ostentatiously for weeks past. Their weapons were picked up by 
the dozen in the street where they had dropped them as they ran. If the 
company persists in trying to work Chinamen under the protection of 
federal bayonets, there will be grave trouble. 

In a later issue this journal warns " the Union Pacific and 
the United States Government that their latest movement is 
little less than criminal. It is inviting a revolution." It 
says, — 

The outbreak at Rock Springs was a horrible affair, brutal, cowardly, 
and in many respects indefensible ; it was a cold-blooded massacre. But 
it was an indication of the feeling which exists against cooly labor. It 
may be in vain, but The Boomerang warns the Union Pacific and the 
United States Government that their latest movement is a little less than 
criminal. It is inviting a revolution. The fiat has gone forth, and the 
Chinese must go. 

Much as one detests the outrages, the murder, riot, and pillage, of 
the 2d of September, it is not worth while to deny that it was the result 
of a determination on the part of the miners to drive out the Chinese, and 
that in this determination they have the sympathy of fellow-laborers. If 
the troops are to be kept on the ground continually, if the United States 
Government is intending to protect these foreigners at the point of the 
bayonet and at the public expense, it may be possible to run these mines 
for a time, but the minute the soldiers are withdrawn there will be trouble. 
Violence, and especially such awful w T ork as that at Rock Springs, brings 
a curse to the Territory and the country, but it is scarcely worse than the 
tyranny which would force a competition between the white miners and 
the Chinese. It is well for those east of us to rant on the subject. Their 
ideas are sound, but they don't understand the facts. No one can under- 
stand them unless he is on the ground. And with due modesty it is 
said that the return of the Mongolian miners to Rock Springs will 
be followed by another uprising, and that if the troops themselves suffer 
with the Chinese, the authorities will be to blame. 

While there are some exceptions to be made, these ex- 
tracts represent, not unfairly, popular opinion along the line 
of the Union Pacific on the question of Chinese labor. 
However unreasonable and illogical the prejudice may be, 
the fact of its existence cannot be disputed. 



18 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



The first communication to the officers of the Company 
from any one connected with the disturbances, was on the 
8th of September, six days after the massacre, when General 
Manager Callaway received a despatch, purporting to come 
from a committee of miners and merchants of Rock Springs, 
asking for an interview for the purpose of presenting the 
grievances of the white miners against the officers of the 
Coal Department. At that time the mines were closed ; and 
although the expelled Chinamen had been brought back 
under military protection, none of them had yet resumed 
work. Mr. Callaway replied, -— 

As soon as the control and management of this company's property 
has been restored to it by territorial or federal authority, I will be glad 
to meet and discuss the matter with you. Until then, it seems to me 
that a conference can be productive of no beneficial results. 

Up to the 12th of September the company had taken no 
action except to collect the scattered survivors of the massa- 
cre, and return them under military protection to Rock 
Springs, and to discharge such of the miners as were known 
to have been concerned in the riots. On that day, Mr. Cal- 
laway received the following message from Denver : — 

Denver, Sept. 12, 1885. 
We protest against driving white miners away from Rock Springs. 
Wish to know exact position of the company regarding the same. 

(Signed) J. N. CORBIX, Sec. of Ex. Com. 

To this communication from the representative of the 
Knights of Labor organization among the company's em- 
ployes, Mr. Callaway replied as follows : — 

This company is not driving white miners away. It is taking such 
steps as are absolutely necessary for the protection of life, and the defence 
of its property. No loyal law-abiding employe has any thing to fear. 

On the 14th of September, Mr. Callaway wired the Rock 
Springs committee who had requested an interview for the 
presentation of grievances, that Mr. Bromley from the com- 
pany's Boston office, accompanied by Assistant General Super- 
intendent Dickinson, would be at Rock Springs the following 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



19 



day, and give them a hearing. The committee referred to 
seems to have been appointed by a meeting of citizens held 
for the purpose on Saturday the 5th, since which time its 
members had been engaged in collecting " evidence in 
regard to the various grievances the men were subject to on 
account of the importation and employment of Chinese." 
The names of the committee were M. L. Hoyt, Dr. E. S. 
Murray, Thomas Sutton, Carl Vowell, and George Schaidt. 
Of these Mr. Hoyt had been about eight months a resident 
of Rock Springs, having a family in Idaho. He was inter- 
ested in a mercantile and banking business in competition 
with Beckwith, Quinn, & Co., towards whom he exhibited 
great hostility. Dr. Murray was believed to be the man on 
horseback described in Foreman Evans's account of the 
attack on the Chinese camp. He had been a resident of 
Rock Springs about nine months, and was anxious for em- 
ployment as physician by the Coal Department, having made 
several attempts to obtain the signatures of the miners to a 
petition for that purpose. One of the miners, who himself 
carried a rifle at the time of the riot, informed the surgeon 
of the company that when Dr. Murray rode over to "China- 
town " on the 3d of September, he told the men to set the 
houses on fire, or the Chinamen would be brought back. 
Thomas Sutton had been a resident of Rock Springs for 
ten years, formerly in the employ of the company as miner, 
and for two years mine boss ; he had left that position 
about eighteen months before, to engage in mercantile busi- 
ness. C. M. Vowell, a miner, came to Rock Springs from 
Iowa about two years before. He is the man who, as will 
subsequently appear, went about Rock Springs after the dis- 
turbance, serving notice on several white miners whose 
conduct had not met his approval, to leave town within 
twenty-four hours. He was afterwards active in warning 
new men employed by the company not to go to work. 
George Schaidt had been about two years in the employ of 
the Company as a miner. 

On the 15th, these members of the committee met Mr. 



20 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



Bromley at Rock Springs, and made a formal presentment of 
grievances ; not ostensibly as a justification of the outbreak 
and its results, but rather as a reason why the company 
should accept the situation, and adjust itself to the new 
relations thus brought about, discharging the Chinamen, 
returning the white miners to their work, and leaving the 
punishment of all offenders to the ordinary processes of law. 
The committee permitted no inquiry into the circumstances 
attending the riot, but confined themselves to the statement 
of grievances. These were presented under the management 
of Dr. Murray, who acted as chief examiner of the wit- 
nesses, in many cases putting a story in their mouths, and 
drawing from them their assent. This was especially notice- 
able in the case of two Chinamen, produced to testify that 
they had bought room privileges, so called, in the mines. 

At the conclusion of the hearing, it was suggested that 
the Government Directors were about going over the road, 
and would probably be at Rock Springs on the 17th, and 
that if the committee desired to make a more formal presen- 
tation of their case, an opportunity would then be afforded. 
The proposition was accepted, the Government Directors 
were notified, and on the 17th the same committee appeared 
and were heard by them. 

At this meeting Mr. Hoyt acted as chairman of the com- 
mittee, and read a document purporting to set forth all 
alleged grievances, after which some of the signers of the 
document were examined by the Government Directors con- 
cerning the causes of complaint. The same course was pur- 
sued as in the previous hearing regarding the circumstances 
immediately attending the outbreak. Concerning them no 
one was permitted to speak, on the ground that some of the 
witnesses were under bonds to appear and answer in a judi- 
cial tribunal, to the charge of having been concerned in the 
riots. The matter thus being in the hands of the officers of 
the law, was, it was maintained, no affair of the company's. 

The sentiments of the grand jury already summoned were 
well known. There was not the slightest expectation in the 



THE CHIN ESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 21 



mind of any one familiar with the situation, that a true bill 
would be found. " The Laramie Boomerang," describing the 
arrest of sixteen persons, " charged with murder, arson, riot, 
and grand larceny," said that when called upon by the re- 
porter in the jail, where they were confined about two days 
before the magistrate admitted them to bail on nominal 
bonds, they were " laughing and singing, and not at all un- 
easy as to the results." The account continued: — ■ 

Their incarceration was apparently a matter of form, and as the 
sheriff took them up the street he did not have to watch to see that none 
ran away, but allowed them to refresh themselves at the beer-saloons, and 
then proceeded to the bastille where they were locked in without protest. 
The county attorney being absent, the exact date of the preliminary ex- 
amination is not known. They can be held three or four days on the 
warrant without examination. It is doubtful if they will be released on 
bail, but if the bail is fixed at any reasonable figure there is $ 100,000 
ready to be put up for them. Able counsel will be retained, and it is not 
believed that any jury will be found in the Territory which will convict 
the prisoners. Other warrants have been sworn out, and were to be 
served to-day. There will be little trouble as would be experienced in 
arresting a lot of children, the men being willing to answer for what they 
have done, and the unanimous opinion of the people sustaining them in 
their course. It is not likely that a single point in the indictment will 
ever be made to stick. 

The two hearings of the committee of citizens and miners 
threw no light upon the events of Sept. 2. Indeed, as 
already stated, that was not the purpose of the committee. 
Their purpose was to show that the miners labored under 
great provocation, and that on the whole the expulsion of the 
Chinese was an excusable if not commendable act. It did 
not appear that any thing unusual had happened to the com- 
pany in the matter of the destruction of its property, interfer- 
ence with the possession and operation of its mines, or the 
killing and driving out of its employes. 

The whole case from the point of view of the miners, and 
the citizens who sympathized with them, is presented in the 
following document, which was read to the Government 
Directors by Mr. Hoyt. The committee had been appointed 



22 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



Sept. 5, for the express purpose of collecting complaints and 
grievances ; public notice had been given, and an invitation 
extended to all who had grievances of any kind to make 
them known ; the committee had been heard by Mr. Brom- 
ley on the 16th, and an opportunity subsequently given them 
to perfect their case for presentation to the Government 
Directors. It is reasonable, therefore, to presume that the 
members of the committee had now agreed upon whatever 
was strongest on their side of the case. 
Mr. Hoyt's statement read thus : — 

The following is a partial list of individual grievances sworn to 
before Oliver S. Johnson, notary public, by the parties whose names are 
appended : — 

Mr. William Hicks testifies : " I was employed to weigh coal during 
the month of July. Was satisfied by the experience of a few days that 
the miners were being robbed by fraudulent weights of from four hun- 
dred to five hundred pounds of coal on each car. I called the attention 
of Superintendent Miller to the facts. Worked on No. 4 mine." 

The above statement is corroborated by the following named citizens 
of Rock Springs, who were acting in the capacity of mine committee at 
the time referred to by Mr. Hicks : John Mushut, William Schaidt, A. 
E. Bell, Robert Lawson, David Rockart, committee, No. 4 mine. 

Mrs. C. H. Flaherty testifies ; "On or about the 10th of December, 
1884, I was coming from Rock Springs to No. 6 mine; and when about 
half way, I was accosted by a Chinaman who was going the same way, 
and stopped in front of me, and made an indecent exposure of his person, 
when I was compelled to leave the road in order to avoid him, and went 
considerably out of the way before I again reached the road. On reach- 
ing the bridge, I found him awaiting me, when the performance was 
repeated. By running for my life, I reached home, and since have con- 
sidered it unsafe for a woman to go anywhere alone." 

Isaiah Whitehouse testifies: " Work in No. 6 mine. I was compelled 
to work an entry in which were three feet of rock. After driving through 
the rock, I was compelled to give up the entry to Chinamen, who had 
refused to work it while the rock remained as an incumbrance." 

William Whalley testifies : "Myself and son worked in No. 5 mine. 
The mine was closed down by the company early in the spring. At the 
time of its abandonment there were employed in it about equal numbers 
of Chinese and white miners. The Chinamen were given employment 
in other mines without delay, while the white men, including myself and 
son, were refused employment,, without any alleged reason or cause, for 
the space of two months." 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 23 



John Mushut and Robert Lawson testify : " We are partners in No. 5 
mine. Were turned out of two places to make room for Chinamen. 
We applied to Superintendent Tisdel at the time to ascertain the cause 
of our removal, and were informed that the good places had been sold to 
Chinamen." 

Samuel Rodda testifies : " I was compelled to give up my room in No. 
1 mine to Chinamen." 

K. J. Johnson testifies : " I came here with four other men upon the 
recommendation of Thomas Quealey of Carbon. Was told we could not 
be employed, as the company was making room for a hundred and fifty 
Chinamen and a hundred men from Utah." 

George R. Beal testifies : "I was w r orking in No. 3 mine on a pillar. 
I was run out by the Chinese armed with picks and drills." 

John Penman and Hugh Griffin testify : "We started 15 entry in No. 
1 mine, and were only permitted to remain until the entry was in shape 
to be worked, when we were removed and places supplied by Chinamen." 

Alexander Cooper testifies : " The Chinamen have entered my room 
in my absence, and loaded coal, which I had previously mined, to the 
amount of ten dollars ; and when I remonstrated, wounded me with 
a drill in the shoulder. They also struck me in the hip with a pick, 
and from this wound a bone three-quarters of an inch long was ex- 
tracted." 

Walter Johnson, John Mushut, W. H. Osborn, Noah Walters, A. 
Parry, A. Bell, and T. Purdy testify: "We have been engaged driving 
entry in No. 1 mine, and have been compelled to remove from six to fifteen 
inches of rock for which we received no compensation, although work of 
this character is considered extra. We were also compelled to drive the 
break-throughs (airways) for nothing ; the boss telling us that in case 
we refused, Chinamen would do it. We were compelled to lay our own 
track with short rails, afterwards replacing them with long ones, thus 
making double labor for us without any additional pay. We were also 
compelled to fill the track so made with coal mined by ourselves, for 
which w r e received no pay. We presented our grievance to Mr. D. O. 
Clark, who promised redress, referring us to Superintendent Brown ; and 
upon our applying to the latter gentleman he stated that he could do 
nothing for us, that he (Clark) had made us no promises." 

Matthew Muir testifies: " I have been driven from two places to make 
room for Chinamen. I have had my cars checked by them, and upon 
applying to the boss for redress, was told that if I did not like it, I could 
take out my tools." 

Allen Roberts testifies : " I worked in No. 5 mine, and w 7 hen it was 
closed down I was thrown out of employment. We were compelled to 
remain idle, some of us two and some three months, while others were 
compelled to leave their places. The Chinamen employed in the same 



24 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



mine, and under the same circumstances, were immediately given work 
in the other mines." 

Joseph Wise testifies. "I worked in mine No. 4, but was compelled to 
give up my place to Chinamen. The worst places are always given to 
white men, while Chinamen work the best ones." 

Adam Cooper testifies: "I turned oft' No. 14 entry in No. 3 mine. As 
soon as the entry was in shape, we were removed, and Chinamen put in. 
Afterwards Chinamen entered our room, took all our tools, and tore up 
forty yards of our track. We stated our case to Superintendent Tisdel, 
telling him we had been driven from our room, etc., etc. He bought us 
a set of tools, and promised us our places back."' 

A. T. Chalice testifies : " I have resided in Rock Springs twelve years 
on the 17th of September, 1885. I have been an employe of the Union 
Pacific Coal Department nine years of that time. I was here at the 
introduction of the Chinamen. Being discharged at that time, with 
many others, I was compelled to leave in search of employment, leaving 
my aged parents behind. I sought employment elsewhere, and during 
my absence they suffered for the common necessaries of life. On my 
return I w r as again refused employment, but finally succeeded in securing 
a job which no Chinaman would accept. I have been turned out of 
place on four different occasions, and am acquainted with many other 
white men who have been served likewise. No white men were allowed 
to drive any of the slopes or entries, although it was work that required 
practical miners ; but the bosses upheld the Chinamen in every thing, 
and if they called jou insulting names, and you dared to retaliate, they 
would say, 'We talkee big bossy man.' I have often been compelled to 
run for my life, when sent to do certain w 7 ork which they had left undone. 
They have even referred to my mother in the most insulting terms, for 
the purpose of trying to provoke me to strike them, in order that I might 
be discharged. Furthermore, we were compelled to trade in Beckwith, 
Quinn, & Co.'s store. I have heard the superintendent of the store tell 
men to go and get work where they bought their goods. 

"An investigation would show that the management here is largely re- 
sponsible for the occurrences of two weeks ago. In the first place, the 
manager is not conversant with mining and the management of mines, 
and he prefers to employ under-bosses as ignorant as himself. The con- 
dition of the ventilation, the system upon which it has been conducted, 
will show T that thousands of dollars have been needlessly expended in 
senseless experiments, for all of which the miners have indirectly been 
compelled to pay." 



After the reading of the above by Mr. Hoyt, there was a 
further informal hearing by the Government Directors, of 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 25 



oral statements and complaints, the substance of which is 
contained in the following report : — 

Government Director Savage to Mr. Hoyt. Are the persons who 
made these statements in the town, and would it be possible to see any 
number of them, so that they might be examined in regard to these 
statements ? 

Mr, Hoyt. I should think so. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. What number do you suppose are citizens of 
this place ? How long have they lived here ? 
Mr. Hoyt. Some of them fifteen years. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. How many of these charges seem to relate to 
discriminations on the part of the mining-superintendents in favor of 
the Chinese, and how do you account for that discrimination in their 
favor V 

Mr. Hoyt. I can hardly speak of my own knowledge. It seems to 
be to their benefit to employ as many Chinamen as possible, and they 
all trade at one store. The management of the mines tries to discourage 
and make it disagreeable for the white men ; for what reason, I cannot 
tell. It is very evident that they discriminate in favor of the Chinese a 
great deal. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Do white miners trade at Beckwith, Quinn, & 
Co.'s store? 

Mr. Hoyt. They trade at different stores, and at Beckwith, Quinn, 
& Co.'s store. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. How many stores are there in town, do you 
suppose V 

Mr. Hoyt. Four or five. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Are there any white miners who trade at Beck- 
with, Quinn, & Co.'s store? 

Mr. Hoyt. Yes, some are regular traders there. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Is the same discrimination exercised in favor of 
these white miners who trade at Beckwith, Quinn, & Co.'s store? 

Mr. Hoyt. I do not think any favor is shown the white men who 
trade at Beckwith, Quinn, & Co.'s store. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. In view of these facts, do you think this dis- 
crimination would be sufficient reason for the driving out of the 
Chinese? 

Mr. Hoyt. Yes. There are not many white men employed here. The 
number of white men employed is so small that it cuts no great figure. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Have you any idea as to how many Chinese 
miners were employed here at first, some eight or nine years ago when 
they first employed them ? 

Mr. Hoyt. I presume Mr. Clark can answer that question. 



26 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



Mr. Clark (Superintendent of the Coal-Mining Department). I am 
not quite certain : I think about fifty white miners and two hundred 
Chinamen. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Has there been any increase in the number of 
Chinamen employed, taking it from that time to this, — have the numbers 
varied ? 

Mr. Clark. There has been an increase in both. 

Isaiah Whitehouse (miner, arrested on suspicion of being one of 
the active parties in the disturbance). On the 31st of August Mr. Evans 
came over to the mine and measured up the places. He told me the place 
was stopped. I asked him where we were to go next. He says, " You 
can have a room in No. 11 or No. 9." No. 11 was closest to us. I says, 
" How is No. 5 entry? '' it being the best entry in the pit He says, " You 
can have a place there if you wish it." I said, " All right, No. 5 entry." 
He says to Davy Brookman, "You give these men places in No. 5." — 
" All right," says Davy. The next morning I went down to the place 
where my partner commenced his place in No 5 entry. After getting my 
tools up 1 commenced work in the place marked off next to my partner, 
and w r orked there three or four hours. Then I came out, and came up to 
the town, and told Mr. Evans what I had done. He says, " Go back to 
your work." Next morning I found two Chinamen in my place at work, 
shaking coal down and loading it. I did not go back to the office at all. 
1 went in and sat down there for about half an hour, talking with the 
Chinamen in regard to their shaking the coal down and taking the place. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you not hear them say any thing as to how 
they came to be there in your place ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. No, sir. Davy Brookman told them in the 
presence of several there that they should not have that place, as it was 
given to another man. (This was subsequently denied by Brookman.) 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Were there any other Chinamen in the room or 
entry ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. Yes, eight or ten. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Had the others been working there the day 
before ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. There were two working in about the fifth room 
above me when I went in. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. When you were talking with them, did they give 
any reason why they were working in your room ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. I decline to answer any questions under the cir- 
cumstances I stand in. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. How long have you been here ? 

Mr. Whitkhouse. I came here two years ago last month. This is 
the only difficulty I have ever had with the Chinamen. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Have they worked in the mines with you? 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 27 



Mr. Whitehouse. Yes, I had two Chinamen working with me for 
sixteen months. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you ever have any trouble or difficulty with 
them ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. Not to amount to any thing. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Have there been frequent quarrels or difficulties 
between other white miners and Chinamen that you know of person- 
ally? 

Mr. Whitehouse. I have seen the boss knock them over. "When I 
came here in the month of August, 1883, the second night I went down 
to my work, Price and Whitehead went down to No. 4 entry, and while 
in there they got fighting. Whitehead in getting back again had a 
blow across the brow, and blood was running down his face. When he 
came out he says, " Go and fetch Price, for they have killed him." I 
made from the car, and was going into No. 1, when I met Price crawling 
out on his hands and knees. He was crying, and says, " They have beat 
me with a tie." He walked around a little bit, and was off his work 
four or five days, and he was waited on for several days. When he came 
back, two Chinamen in No. 4 met him. They were sitting in their place 
chatting, and I had come over to the other side to slope, when these 
Chinamen came out from their work over across. The three of them 
asked Price if he likee fightee. He said " yes.' ! He had his hand on 
his pistol, and they went back to their work. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Was any complaint ever made against the China- 
men ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. Yes. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. What was the result of it ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. I could not say. The boss came near getting 
into a racket himself the next morning. I believe the Chinese agent 
came down that morning, and the men talked the matter over, and it 
was quashed. The Chinese were not arrested. The investigation was 
made at the mouth of the pit two years ago last August. 

Gov. Dir. Haxxa. Among the list of grievances is one from yourself 
that you were required to work an entry where there was rock. When 
was that ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. About four months ago. 

Gov. Dir. Haxxa. Is it understood that rock is to be paid for ? 

Mr- Whitehouse. Yes. The rock being about three feet thick, we 
did not take that down without pay. Owing to the rock, the Chinamen 
refused it owing to the danger they would endure by getting under it. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Have you any complaint to make against the 
Chinamen with reference to this mine ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. Nothing more than that they refused the place. 
We could have refused the place and quit. 



28 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



Gov. Dir. Savage. Why were you compelled to take this place? 

Mr. Whitehouse. That I told in my statement. The rooms were 
not fit for a man to work in. They would kill a man if he had to stay in 
them. I could not maintain my family and have my health. 1 was com- 
pelled to take the other entry because there was good air there. It has 
been told not only to me alone, but to a hundred other white miners, 
that if you do not like the place given you, to quit and take out your tools. 
The reason why I was compelled to take No. 13 entry was owing to the 
difference of air. Chinese have always had the preference, and have to 
my knowledge taken entries without a permit. We had to get orders — 
we did not have that privilege. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. In the room where you were working, you found 
bad air. In what entry ? 

Mr. Whitehead. No. 7. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. Is it not customary for miners to make their own 
break-throughs ? 

Mr. Whitehead. When paid. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. Yes, allowed so much per yard. 

Mr. Whitehead. They are not allowed to make break-throughs 
whenever they please. They have to go to the boss and get orders. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you make any application for making your 
own break-throughs ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. I was only in it about a day and a half. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. Why did you want to leave it? 

Mr. Whitehouse. On account of the air. I have asked the boss to 
make the break-through. He would not allow me to draw any cross cut 
when it was necessary. The room had been turned before I went to 
work there, and there was no break-through in it. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. When a man puts a break-through in, is it an 
advantage ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. It is not every man who wishes a break-through 
owing to the prices paid. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. Is it not necessary, in order to work a room, that 
a break-through be made, and by the miner? 

Mr. Whitehouse. Yes, it is the rule. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. Is it not the rule in all mines ycu have ever 
worked in ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. l^es. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. What is the length of the room in this mine? 
Mr. Whitehouse. Forty to sixty yards. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. You merely left the room because you were not 
willing to make a break-through to get the coal out? 

Mr. Whitehouse. I left it because of the bad air, and rather than go 
to the expense of making that break-through to mine coal in that room. 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 29 



Gov. Dir. ITanxa. It was a mere question of dollars and cents; as to 
which you could make the most money out of. 
Mr. Whitehouse. Yes. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. Was it customary to ask the mining boss to make 
these break-throughs ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. I do not know whether I asked him that or not. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Do you know the different nationalities of the 
men employed here outside of the Chinamen ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. There is English, Scotch, Welsh, Scandinavians, 
and Irish. I am English. I have been engaged in mining for twenty- 
five years. We have been prevented from going to the office to see the 
proper authorities to lay our complaints or give reasons in any shape. 
As soon as we would do that, the next thing we heard was a telephone 
message to mine No. so and so to discharge that man. I remember last 
fall when eight others went to the office here to present a part of their 
grievances to Mr. Tisdel, and they said they could not understand why 
they were discharged, did not he refer them to that section in the con- 
tract? He would not hear their complaints, because they had signed 
this agreement or contract. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. With whom was this contract made? 

Mr. Whitehouse. Between the miners and the Coal Department. 

Gov. Dir. Savage to Mr. Hoyt. Can you give the proportion of the 
different nationalities employed here? 

Mr. Hoyt No, I cannot. Quite a number of English and Swedes 
and Danes. I learned the largest proportion of them were English, next 
Scotch, then came the Swedes, Chinese, Irish. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Are there any others? 

Mr. Hoyt. Folanders, Hungarians, and Bohemians. A very small 
sprinkling of this class. There are between seventy and eighty Welsh. 
Gov. Dir. Savage. How long have you lived here? 
Mr. Hoyt. About four months. 

Gov. Dir. Savage Where did you belong before coming here? 

Mr. Hoyt. Evanston, Park City, and Green River. I was employed 
by the Company some eight years as station agent. I am not familiar 
with coal mining, only as I have seen it. I am now engaged in the mer- 
cantile business here. 

Gov. Dir. Savage to Dr. Murray. How long have you resided here, 
doctor ? 

Dr. Murray. About six months. 

Mr. Hoyt. I was here when the Chinamen were first put on the 
road. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you leave the Company of your own choice? 
Mr. Hoyt. Yes, sir. 

Mr Hoyt. If we were employed here as workmen in the mines, and 



oO THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



there were two hundred or three hundred Chinamen here, and the com- 
pany anxious to employ them in the mines, we would be very slow 
to make our complaints, because there would be men here waiting to 
take our places. They are bringing them in all the time to employ 
them. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. How many more Chinamen were there here at 
the time of this trouble than there were last fall ? 
Mr. Hoyt. I do not know. 

Mr. Hoyt to Mr. Clark. Was not there some coming on the way 
when this trouble happened ? 
Mr. Clark. I do not know. 

Mr. Hoyt. They employ them in all their mines and on the track. 
All money made by the Chinamen is shipped to San Francisco, whereas 
if white men were employed here, they would live and die here and be- 
come identified with the country. It is a mystery to me why they employ 
these Chinamen. The true reason is that it is a money-making scheme 
on the part of Beckwith, Quinn, & Co. Of course they want to keep 
them. It is a matter of dollars and cents with them. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Are you a competitor of this firm at this point ? 

Mr. Hoyt. Yes: they have been trying to do every thing to injure 
our business. They are the cause of all this trouble. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. If the miners were permitted to trade at what- 
ever store they chose, would there have been any such trouble as led to 
this outrage ? 

Mr. Hoyt. It is simply guess-work. I cannot say. I think there 
would have always been the same feeling against the Chinamen, as we 
find it in all localities. The feeling against the Chinamen grew out of 
the fact that they were made favorites at Beckwith, Quinn, & Co.'s, and 
in the mining of coal. They were given the preference in the mines. 
They wanted the Chinamen to mine as much coal as possible, so that they 
would earn as much money as possible. They were also compelled to 
trade there. If the Chinamen had not been compelled to trade at their 
store, but given the privilege of trading wherever they chose, I think the 
feeling would have existed under these circumstances on general prin- 
ciples. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Do you sell goods to Chinamen? 

Mr. Hoyt. We have probably half a dozen on our books. The real 
truth of this thing is, that they had better chances simply because they 
were Chinamen, while white miners were refused employment. Chinamen 
were shipped to Rock Springs, and placed in the mines, and no white 
men could get employment even upon recommendation. Men who came 
from the East, and who had been mining for the last fourteen years, were 
refused employment because Mr. Tisdale said he could get a hundred 
men at any time. It certainly did lead to the outbreak. Chinamen were 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 31 



employed, instead of white men. White men could not get work under 
any consideration. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Have there been any white men employed since 
last week? 

Mr. Hoyt. I presume so. During the last two or three months no 
white men could get work. They shipped Mormons from Utah here, and 
gave them work. 

Gov. Dir. Savage to Mr. D. O. Clark. Has the number of China- 
men been increased in proportion to the white men? 

Mr. Clark. On the last day of June there were two hundred and 
fifty-six Chinamen and a hundred and fifteen white men. On the last of 
Jul}*, two hundred and ninety-one Chinamen and a hundred and fifty-six 
white men. Last August, three hundred and thirty-one Chinamen and 
a hundred and fifty white men. 

Mr. Hoyt. Men here with families have not had work for two 
months. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. What would be your objection to the employment 
of Chinese after taking every thing into consideration? 

Mr. Hoyt. Are you in favor of the Chinese occupying all our coun- 
try here ? 

Gov. Dir. Savage. That is not an answer to my question. 

Mr. Hoyt. You come out here with a family, seeking employment, 
and they tell you they cannot give you work, they have Chinamen in the 
mines. You go on to the section-foreman, and ask him for employment; 
and he says, " We employ Chinamen." You reach Evanston, and find the 
same situation there, and I think your feeling against the employment 
would indeed be serious. This is what causes the same feeling through- 
out the country. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. As between a Welshman coming to this country 
from Great Britain, and a Chinaman coming to this country, do you think 
the Welshman has any better right to employment? 

Mr. Hoyt. Certainly. The Welshman comes here to make his home, 
while the Chinaman does not. If he dies, his bones are transported. 
Most of the Chinamen here are smuggled in contrary to our laws. It is 
simply a mild form of slavery. 

Gov. Dir. Savage to Mr. Whitehouse. When you went back to 
your room in the mine that day, and found the Chinamen there, you did 
not take any particular pains to find out whether it was a mistake? 

Mr. Whitehouse. I asked the Chinamen if they would only wait 
until the pit-boss came; if he said they were to have the place, they 
could have it. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did they claim the rooms had been assigned to 
them ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. No. 



32 THE CniNESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



Gov. Dir. Savage. You did not go to the pit-boss and inform him 
the Chinamen were there? 

Mr. Whitehouse. I did not need to go there. He told them they 
could not have the place : we told them they should not have it. Mr. 
Brookman told them himself — he is pit-boss. They took the room 
knowing it was mine. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did Brookman go with you to these two rooms 
when they were marked off for you ? 

Mr. Whitehouse. I believe he went with my partner. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did not he tell you you should take the first two 
rooms marked off? 

Mr. Whitehouse. Yes. There were two Chinamen this side of us. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. I understand the first two rooms were marked 
off for Chinamen, and that you did not come down; that you went out, 
and when you came back took these rooms. 

Mr. Whitehouse. There were two Chinamen working in the fifth 
room. I took the room that was marked off for me by Brookman. 

David Brookman, acting pit-boss, who marked off the 
room for Whitehouse and partner, was asked, — 

Gov. Dir. Savage. What instructions had you given relative to the 
places in No. 5 entry of this mine? 

Ans. On Monday, the last day of the month, Mr. Evans and I 
measured No. 5 entry, and stopped the other entries, and we measured 
four rooms for the Chinamen. We measured until we went right down 
to No. 13, and Mr. Evans told Whitehouse that he could go to No 5 or 
No. 11, either one or both. The next morning, Tuesday, Whitehouse 
said he would go to No. 5. I said, " If you are going, you had better see 
Mr. Evans." He went up to No 5, and then he went out to see Mr 
Evans. Mr. Evans told him it was all right, he could work there. I 
told him and his partner to turn at the first chalk-mark they came to in 
the fifth entry. They went in, and saw four Chinamen working inside. 
They went up to the chalk-mark the next morning after the Chinamen 
came in, — that was Wednesday, — and wanted their rooms. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Were these rooms given to the Chinamen first 
marked off for Chinamen ? 

Ans. Yes. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. After Whitehouse found the Chinamen in there, 
did he say any thing to you about the Chinamen being in the room? 
Ans. No, sir. I was not there. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. He did not hunt you up and say there was a 
mistake ? 

Ans. No, sir ; I was down in No. 9 entry, in the same mine. 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 33 



Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you see or hear any thing of the trouble? 

Ans. No, sir. All the Chinamen saw it on the slope, and the white 
men. I went back into the mines. I did not see any thing of the shoot- 
ing or firing. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. White miners started this as much as Chinamen? 
Ans. Yes, sir. 

Charles Hughberry testified in regard to the knowledge of the 
Chinamen that these rooms or entries belonged to Whitehouse and 
partner: "I was driving where Mr. Whitehouse and his partner were 
working. Mr. Whitehouse went out in the forenoon, and about noon 
the Chinamen came in and wanted his partner to get out ; he said No, 
this was his room, and that he was not going to get out ; and they went 
into where Whitehouse had started, and went to work in there. He 
told them it was Whitehouse's room. I heard him tell them this, and 
they said, 4 No savee.' " 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you hear David Brookman say that was their 
place, and they should go inside and turn rooms? 

Ans. Yes. They said " No savee," that was their room. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Was Brookman there when the Chinamen came 
in? 

Ans. No, sir. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. This was after they had started to work in the 
afternoon ? 

Ans. Yes, they had started to work in Whitehouse's room. 
Gov. Dir. Savage. What followed after that ? 
Ans. That was all that I saw any thing of. 
Gov. Dir. Savage. Were you at the rooms? 
Ans. I was there at this time. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. After the Chinamen said in their language what 
you claim, then what followed ? 

Ans. I could not tell, because I did not understand them. I know 
they w T ent inside, and started to work in Whitehouse's room. The pit- 
boss told Whitehouse to go on and work at the first chalk-mark ; that 
chalk-mark would be the fifth mark. I tried to persuade them not to go 
to work in there, but they said "No savee." 

The above is the whole case of the committee of miners 
and citizens of Rock Springs as presented to the Government 
Directors. 

Upon this presentation the committee desired that the 
Union Pacific should admit that it had wantonly provoked 
the miners to a point be} r ond endurance, should recognize the 
justice and propriety of the summary measures which had 



34 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



been taken, and should officially sanction the same by restor- 
ing the miners to their places, and issuing an order forbidding 
the employment of Chinamen thereafter. This was the pro- 
position made by a committee of which Mr. Vowell was 
chairman. The committee proposed that, upon condition 
no Chinamen should be employed at the mines, the miners 
would all resume work, — including those who had been dis- 
charged for participation in the massacre, — leaving the 
question of grievances to be settled thereafter. 

The formal statement of grievances contained five speci- 
fications, to wit : — 

1. That false weights were used, by which miners were de- 
frauded of four or five hundred pounds of coal to each car. 

2. That the presence of Chinamen at Rock Springs made 
it unsafe for women to venture out alone. 

3. That the Chinese miners were favored in the assignment 
of rooms in the mines, favorably located for easy working. 

4. That Superintendent Tisdel sold privileges to China- 
men. 

5. That miners were compelled to trade at Beckwith, 
Quinn, & Co.'s store. 

As to the use of false weights, it appeared that the weights 
which Mr. Hicks referred to were used not for weighing, but 
to balance the weight of the car. Mr. Hicks was only em- 
ployed temporarily at weighing, and it is more likely that he 
misunderstood his instructions, than that the miners who 
keep a very close watch, and know within a very narrow 
margin the quantity of coal to a ton, had been defrauded of 
from twenty to twenty-five per cent in weighing the proceeds 
of their labor. An examination of coal shipments, however, 
at mine No. 4, where Mr. Hicks discovered the false weights, 
shows that during July, eight tons were shipped more than 
the miners were paid for; while in August, miners were paid 
for eighty-four more tons than were shipped. No coal is 
used around the mine unless accounted for as shipped. 

The charge that the presence of Chinamen at Rock Springs 
made it unsafe for women to venture out alone is remarkable 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 35 



in view of the testimony of eye-witnesses of the massacre, in 
which some of the grossest brutalities were perpetrated upon 
Chinamen by women, one woman notoriously shooting two 
of them. 

The essence of the alleged grievances obviously lies in 
the last three specifications. The essential grievance was the 
employment of Chinese. Other complaints were make- 
weights, — mere additional counts to round out and com- 
plete the indictment. It was in the first place alleged, that 
favoritism was shown the Chinese, and that the best rooms 
for working in the mines were sold to them by the superin- 
tendent. Both at the informal hearing before Mr. Bromley 
on the 15th, and at the formal hearing before the Govern- 
ment Directors on the 17th, testimony was adduced in 
support of this charge. 

Two or three Chinamen, evidently much frightened, as 
was natural under the circumstances, were brought forward 
by Dr. Murray to testify that they had bought privileges in 
the mines. It turned out that the transaction referred to 
was the purchase, for one hundred dollars, of a room by one 
gang of Chinamen from another gang. Dr. Murray supplied 
the additional statement that "this was a second purchase ; 
the first being made from the big bossy man." The other 
statements on this point were, with a single exception, loose 
and vague, with no foundation but idle gossip. The one ex- 
ception was the case of a pit-boss named McBride who did 
sell a room to a gang of Chinamen. It was quickly dis- 
covered, and brought to the attention of Superintendent Tis- 
del, who immediately discharged McBride, remarking at the 
time that if any more rooms were sold they would have to 
be bought of him. The meaning of this was plain. It was 
understood at the time as simply an announcement that such 
things would not be permitted. It never would have been 
construed seriously, had it been possible in any other way to 
make out even the semblance of a case against the compai^'s 
officers. Superintendent Tisdel would hardly have made 
such a statement publicly if he had actually intended to 



36 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



sell privileges ; nor would the miners have submitted to such 
a state of tilings without the most energetic protest. Coal- 
miners are tenacious of their rights, and by no means a sub- 
missive class of men. That the Rock Springs miners are not 
exceptions in this respect, was sufficiently shown in the work 
of Sept. 2. Mushut and Lawson, the two miners who testi- 
fied as above that they were turned out of their places, and 
had been informed that the good places had been sold to 
Chinamen, were contradicted point blank by Superintendent 
Tisdel ; and at the hearings where both of them orally tes- 
tified, they contradicted themselves in a manner so marked 
and positive as to excite comment among their own friends. 

Mr. Tisdel was personally questioned concerning the 
charges against him, and the following is the report of the 
examination : — 

Government Director Savage. " Certain grievances have been brought 
to our notice by a committee of white miners here, to the effect that you 
had sold, and declared that you would sell, privileges to work in different 
rooms in the mines, in specially advantageous rooms in the mines, and 
that privileges were specially granted to Chinese." 

Mr. Tisdel. " It is not so. I might have made an unwise remark 
when two persons reported it to me ; they probably did not take it as it 
was intended. There was Mc Bride, a pit-boss, and it came to my notice 
that he had been selling rooms ; I told him to come to the office, and dis- 
charged him for it, and at the same time said that if any more rooms 
were to be sold they should apply to me at the office." 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you mean to be understood that you w T ould 
sell rooms? 

Ans. I meant it to be understood that there would be no rooms sold. 
Gov. Dir. Savage. Have you ever exercised any discriminations in 
regard to privileges in the mines in favor of the Chinese ? 
Ans. Never. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Have complaints been made about discrimination 
being made in favor of the Chinese by parties ? or have they come to 
your knowledge ? 

Ans. Only in this one instance. 

Gov. Dir. Savage., How has it been about complaints of favoritism 
by the white people? Have white miners had preference over Chinese? 

Ans. No, sir. No complaints have been made. There have been 
men of both nationalities come to the office to see if they could not get 
better rooms, or something like that. 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 37 



Gov. Dir. Savage. Who is that generally left with? 
Ans. It is generally left with the pit-boss. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. There are some entries, then, that are understood 
to be preferable to others V 

Ans. An entry is better than a room, of ^course. A man can make 
more money driving an entry than he can in a room ; he is paid a little 
more for it. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. In driving an entry, is he paid for the coal? 
Ans. Yes. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Please state whether you had any knowledge of 
this feeling of the white miners against the Chinamen. 

Ans. No, sir. Nothing special ; I had no knowledge of this matter 
at all- Of course, there has been for the last two or three months, ever 
since this Chinese question has been agitated, more or less talk. For 
the last two or three months this question has been agitated all along the 
road. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Is it confined to coal-mines along the road? 

Ans. No, sir; I think not. I knew nothing of the trouble here until 
the night I went to Cheyenne. They have never made any complaints to 
me ; there was nothing to indicate that there was to be an outbreak. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. This outbreak, then, was entirely unexpected to 
you? 

A ns. Yes. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Were you here on that day? 
Ans. No, sir; I was in Cheyenne. 

It was next charged that the white miners were imposed 
upon by Chinamen , or, as in the case of Mr. Chalice, were 
compelled to run for their lives from them. Whatever pre- 
judice may exist against the Chinamen for any cause, it will 
not be pretended by intelligent persons that they are given 
to violence, or that there is danger of white men — least of 
all, men of the temper of coal-miners — being intimidated by 
them. Mr. Whitehouse, the miner with whom the alterca- 
tion concerning the room in the mine which ended in the 
massacre, began, said he had worked with Chinamen for six- 
teen months without trouble or difficulty. Mr. Hoyt of the 
Citizens' Committee laughed outright, when asked by Gov- 
ernment Director Savage whether the Chinamen had ever 
exhibited any desire to drive out the white miners. He said, 
" The Chinese are a timid race ; they are more like children 



38 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



really than men. They won't fight. There is no fight to 
them, except when they are in great numbers." 

The charge that miners were compelled to trade at Beck- 
with, Quinn, & Co.'s store, was found to have no foundation 
in fact. The firm of Beckwith, Quinn, & Co. have had for 
the past ten years — as will presently appear — a contract 
with the Union Pacific Railway Compari}% under which they 
act as agents of the company in procuring Chinese laborers 
and in paying off all miners, both white and Chinese. The 
pay-rolls are kept by the company's officers, but the amounts 
due upon them are placed in the hands of Beckwith, Quinn, 
and Co., at the end of each month, and by them disbursed. 
The sole advantage gained by them is in being able to extend 
credit to the miners during the month upon the security of 
the pay-rolls. There was no testimony offered, nor any spe- 
cific complaint made, against them on the score of excessive 
charges or otherwise. Their connection with the emplo} T - 
ment of Chinese laborers seems to have been the only real 
ground of the feeling against them among the miners. On 
the part of certain members of the citizens' committee, there 
was, in addition to the anti-Chinese feeling, evident jealousy- 
growing out of competition in trade. Thus Mr. Hoyt, who 
acted as chairman of the citizens' committee at the second 
hearing, having expressed the opinion that the employment 
of Chinamen was "a money-making scheme on the part of 
Beckwith, Quinn, & Co.," was asked if he was a competitor 
of that firm, to which he replied, " Yes. They have been 
trying to do every tiling to injure our business. They charge 
us fifteen per cent for collecting bills from the miners." 

From the statements made by the citizens and miners in 
the two hearings, as well as from the document read by Mr. 
Hoyt, it was evidently their simple and sincere belief that 
the privilege of working in the Rock Springs mines belonged 
exclusively to so-called white miners , that it was a wrong 
and an outrage upon them to employ Chinese , that it was 
especially wrong and outrageous to refuse employment to 
white miners, no matter what their character was, so long as 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 39 



there was work enough in the mines to keep Chinamen em- 
ployed; that the superintendents who gave the Chinamen 
work, were the foes of white labor, and should be dismissed ; 
and that Beckwith, Quinn, & Co., the labor contractors, as 
the agency through which the Chinamen had been engaged, 
were the primary cause of the difficulty, and as such should 
be at once cut off from all connection with the Union Pacific, 
and the contract with them summarily terminated. 

The root of the difficult} 7 being thus the employment of 
Chinamen in the mines, inquiry was made concerning the 
circumstances under which this class of labor was originally 
introduced. 

It appeared that almost exactly ten years before, in No- 
vember, 1875, the miners at Rock Springs, who were then 
receiving one dollar per ton for coal mined, made a demand 
for twenty-five cents per ton advance. There was at the 
time an increasing consumption of the coal from these mines ; 
and the first intimation the company had of the action of 
the miners was through their action in restricting them- 
selves in the hours of labor and reducing the output, many 
of the miners doing their day's work in from four to five 
hours. It was under these circumstances that Mr. S. H. H. 
Clark, then general superintendent of the Union Pacific Rail- 
way Company, resorted to the employment of Chinese. 

The story of the transaction was clearly told in " The 
Cheyenne Leader '' of Sept. 11, the editor of which, Mr. 
Glafcke, was personally cognizant of the facts. A strenuous 
opponent of Chinese labor, in the article from which the fol- 
lowing extract is taken, the editor of the " Leader " gives 
his reasons for opposing its introduction into this country. 
But he inquires, " Who is to blame ? " and then proceeds as 
follows : — 

Upon whose shoulders rests the responsibility of bringing to Wyo- 
ming the heathens that have taken the places of w hite laborers ? 

In the autumn of 1875, the coal company employed about five hun- 
dred white miners in their Rock Springs mines. The company paid a 
very liberal contract-price per ton for mining the coal. It enabled the 



40 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



men to earn from six to ten dollars per day, but they worked only about 
three days in the week. The winter was approaching, and the com- 
pany needed more coal. The writer was present when Mr. S. H. H. 
Clark, then general superintendent, notified the miners that the com- 
pany needed an increased supply of coal, and requested them during the 
next three months to so arrange their forces as to produce an increased 
output of at least twenty-five per cent. The miners replied that they 
would consider the matter, and report their decision to him in the even- 
ing. A meeting of the Miners' Union was called, and after a lengthy 
discussion it was decided to decline Mr. Clark's proposition, and not to 
increase the output. A committee thereupon called upon the superin- 
tendent, and communicated to him the action of the union. Mr. Clark, 
naturally, expressed great surprise. Addressing the committee he said, 
"Does your union propose to dictate to this company regarding the 
amount of coal it is to mine V Do you intend to limit our supply of coal 
from our own mines, when we are ready to pay the regular price per ton 
heretofore agreed upon ? Do you wish to cripple us in failing to give us 
an adequate supply of our own coal for the purpose of running our trains 
and to supply needs of the people residing along the line of our road 
who depend upon us for their necessary fuel ? If that is your purpose, 
gentlemen/' continued Mr. Clark, " I herewith give you notice that in a 
very short time I will have a body of men here who will dig for us all 
the coal we want. 1 ' This ended the interview, and as no further reply 
was received from the miners before Mr. Clark's departure the following 
morning, that gentleman proceeded at once to provide ways and means 
to protect the interests of the company. Within sixty days three hun- 
dred Chinese laborers were at work in the Rock Springs mines. Is the 
above question, ' Who is to blame? ' answered to the satisfaction of our 
readers ? 

But for the above-mentioned action of the Coal Miners' Union, not a 
Chinaman would be employed at any of the Union Pacific mines to-day. 
The company much prefer white laborers, as, all things considered, they 
are the best workers and make the best citizens. One thousand white 
men with their families and connections, with their thrift, enterprise, and 
needs, are of more value to the Union Pacific Eailway Company than 
ten thousand Chinamen. But if white men will not dig the company's 
coal for pay, who will blame the company for hiring yellow, black, or red 
men, who are ready and willing to do what white men will not do ? 

To avoid similar complications in future, a contract was 
made with Beckwith, Quinn, & Co., for the employment of 
• Chinese miners, of which the following is a copy : — 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 41 



Igrcemmt made and entered into this twenty-fourth day of Decem- 
ber, A.D. 1875, between Beck with, Quinn, & Co., of Evanston, Wyoming 
Territory, of the first part, and the Union Pacific Railroad Company, of 
the second part : 

Witxesseth: The parties of the first part hereby agree to furnish 
to the party of the second part, all the Chinese laborers requisite for the 
complete working of their several coal-mines on the line of the Union 
Pacific Railroad, at the same prices and on the same terms and conditions 
as stated in a certain contract for similar service made by Sisson, Wallace, 
& Co., for and in behalf of Chinese laborers, with the Rocky Mountain 
Coal & Mining Company, a copy of which is hereto attached and made 
part of this agreement. 

The said parties of the first part further agree to furnish to the said 
party of the second part, upon a reasonable notice from their general 
superintendent, a sufficient number of Chinese laborers for the repairs of 
the track of the Union Pacific Railroad, or such portion thereof, in addi- 
tion to that which is now being worked by Chinamen, as the party of the 
second part may require. 

It is hereby mutually understood and agreed : — 

First, That all of the Chinese laborers so furnished by the parties of 
the first part for the purposes named, shall be delivered by them to the 
Union Pacific Railroad Company, at Ogden, free from all expense to it, 
and that free transportation shall be afforded by the Union Pacific Rail- 
road Company, for all such Chinese laborers to and from all points on its 
line, wherever their services may be required. 

Second, That the surplus Chinese required and employed in the 
mines during the winter season shall be transferred in the spring to the 
repairs of track of the said Union Pacific Railroad, and continued there 
at the prices now allowed upon the company rolls for such labor, during 
the summer, and until their services are again required in the coal-mines. 

Third, That all mining tools required by the Chinese in their labors 
under this contract, and which are furnished by the said Beckwith, Quinn, 
& Co., shall be charged at cost price only, with freight added, the said 
party of the second part hereby reserving the right at any time to provide 
same at their own cost and expense. 

Fourth, The said Beckwith, Quinn, & Co. shall become responsible to 
the said Union Pacific Railroad Company, for all water furnished by it 
to white miners, and all other parties excepting Chinamen, and shall 
account for same at the present prices; also for all coal delivered to 
Chinese or white miners ; and further agree that no extra charge will be 
made by them for delivering water or coal as above. 

The said party of the second part hereby agrees, in consideration of 
the premises aforesaid, to pay to the said parties of the first part the 
amount of the rolls for Chinese labor so furnished by them, at and after 



42 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



the rates named in the Rocky Mountain Coal & Iron Company contract 
hereto attached, regularly on the fifteenth day of each month next suc- 
ceeding that in which said labor has been performed ; such payment shall 
be made in the same manner as the present track rolls for Chinese labor. 

The party of the second part hereby agrees to sell to the said Beck- 
with, Quinn, & Co., all the present stock of supplies, tools, store furniture 
and fixtures, contained in their store at Rock Springs, W.T., on the fol- 
lowing terms and conditions : viz., — 

For all staple articles, such as groceries and other goods bought on 
thirty days time, the invoice cost thereof as ascertained from an invent- 
ory made about Nov. 1, 1875, with freight added; for all other merchan- 
dise and supplies not within the classification of staples, a deduction of 
ten per cent from the inventory prices referred to shall be made. 

For all store furniture and fixtures, the prices shall be fixed by M. H. 
Goble and A. C. Beck with, whose appraisal shall be final. 

The value of said stock of supplies, tools, etc., shall be ascertained by 
said Goble and Beckwith in an inventory to be taken by them on or be- 
fore the 1st of January, 1876, and payments made for the same shall be 
made by the parties of the first part to the party of the second part, 
as follows : — 

The aggregate value of the stock as ascertained shall be divided into 
fifteen (15) equal payments, one of which shall be deducted commencing 
with January, 1876, from the pay-rolls for Chinese labor of each and 
every succeeding month, in consecutive order, until the full amount of 
same shall have been deducted and paid to the said Union Pacific Rail- 
road Company. 

The said party of the second part hereby further agrees to rent to the 
said Beckwith, Quinn, & Co., their store-house and appurtenances at 
Rock Springs, for the monthly rental of one hundred dollars, and this 
amount shall also be deducted from the Chinese pay-rolls each month in 
the settlement of the joint accounts. 

It is hereby mutually understood and agreed that this contract shall 
take effect on the 1st of January, 1876, and continue in force so long as it 
may operate to the mutual advantage of the parties hereto, but may be 
terminated by either upon giving a written notice of ninety days. 



In presence of 

A. D. Clarke, BECKWITH, QUITO", & CO. 

O. H. Earle, THE UNION PACIFIC R. R. CO., 

Chas. Stone. By S. H. H. Clark, Gen. Supt. 

[Executed in duplicate.] 



THE CIIINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 43 



Agreement of the Rocky Mountain Coal & Iron Company with the 
Chinamen. 

Chinamen agree to mine the coal, load it in pit cars, and deliver it at 
the mouth of the room free from slack and rock, and assorted, either 
lump, small, or mixed, as directed, at seventy-four (74) cents coin per ton 
of twenty-two hundred and forty (2240) pounds, from all places, either 
rooms, levels or air courses- 

An additional price of $3 coin per running yard to be paid for levels 
and air courses run double shift ; width of rooms to be eighteen (18) 
feet; levels twelve (12) feet; and air courses ten (10) feet. If • these 
widths are exceeded, endangering the mine, they are to be charged back 
with the }^ardage $3 per running yard. 

They agree to load all box cars, for which they are to receive at the 
rate of fifty (50) cents per car ; coal to be shovelled from centre of car, 
and loaded in ends. 

The track is to be laid by the Chinamen in the places where they are 
working (except levels), the material being furnished at the mouth of 
the mine. 

The company track layer to put in all switches and turn-outs. Day 
laborers working in mine (furnishing their own oil) are to receive 835 
coin per month. Day laborers working on top, pushing cars, etc , $33 
coin per month. 

Outside laborers, such as section men, etc., $31 coin per month. Car- 
penters, $33 coin per month. (26 days called a month.) 

In cases of fire or cave-in of the mine, or any other accident tending 
to stop work either inside or outside the mine, all the men required by 
the company are to be suspended from contract work, and put on the 
labor required at day-laborers' wages. 

All cars of coal sent out of the mine in which there is slack or rock, 
will be docked half of their weight ; and if men disobey their foreman, 
or persist in sending out slack or rock, after being docked, they will be 
discharged. 

All men are to commence and stop work by the whistle. 

Company are to furnish tools, do the blacksmithing and repairing, 
furnish mules, harness, and pit cars, and supply of water, for the 
men. 

Company are to deliver coal at the houses of all the laborers, for which 
the Chinamen are to pay 50 cents per man per month. 

Company are to furnish houses for the Chinamen to live in, at $5 per 
month for each house. 

Men will pay for oil, powder, and blasting paper, and will be charged 
for cars or tools broken, lost, or disabled by their carelessness ; broken 
and disabled property at what it cost to repair it, and tools at following 
prices : 



44 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 
Picks and handles $1.75 



Drills 2.50 

Needles . 1.50 

Scrapers .50 

Riddles 2.00 

Quart oil-cans .30 

Powder-cans . . . . . . . . . .75 

Pick-handles .40 

Couplings 2.00 

Shovels . . . . . . . . . 2.25 



A verbal agreement was subsequently made with Beck- 
with, Quinn, & Co., in addition to the above contract, under 
which the latter were to pay all the miners, both white and 
Chinese. This arrangement has continued from that time to 
the present. 

The introduction of Chinese labor into the mines was far 
from receiving the approval of the miners whose action had 
forced the company to the step. There was organized oppo- 
sition, with threats and even demonstrations of violence ; 
but the presence of United States troops preserved the peace. 
Except for the presence of Chinamen, the miners controlled 
the situation. Not only could they dictate their own terms 
as to wages, but they could say how much coal should be 
produced. Their avowed purpose was to hold the company 
in their power. They had initiated their programme by 
summary proceedings which forced the company to measures 
of self-defence. Without note of warning or previous sign 
of discontent, they had put their demands in the form of an 
ultimatum. There was no appeal to reason, no admission 
that there could be any middle ground or basis for compro- 
mise. 

The case of the striking miners had so little ground for 
justification, and the action of the company was so clearly 
warranted by the existing facts, that the effort to induce the 
mining organizations elsewhere to make common cause with 
the strikers at Rock Springs came to naught. In a short 
time it became apparent even to the strikers that the}^ had 
made a mistake, and that it would be useless for them to 



THE CHINESE MAS SACK E AT ROCK SPRINGS. 45 



undertake to disturb the order of things which had resulted 
therefrom. Rock Springs thus came to be — not from the 
company's preference, but because driven to it as the only 
alternative to the abandonment of the mines — practically a 
Chinese mining camp. Work was resumed with about fifty 
white miners and a hundred and fifty Chinese. The intention 
of the coal-mining department was to maintain about this pro- 
portion ; but the white miners gradually increased until at 
the time of the massacre there were a hundred and fifty of 
them to three hundred and thirty-one Chinese. There was 
no difference in wages. The standard price was seventy-four 
cents per ton, though it varied from seventy to eighty-five 
cents according to the vein. 

With the departure from Rock Springs of the striking 
miners, in 1875, order and quiet was restored, and the peace- 
able working of the mines resumed. Hostility to Chinese 
labor continued, though there was no violent demonstration. 
But the opposition of the miners' unions was not confined 
to the Chinamen ; against Mormon miners, who would not 
join their organization, it was little less pronounced. The 
reason was obvious. The presence in the mines of any men 
or set of men who were not connected with the organization, 
and consequently not bound to go out when a strike was 
ordered, set limitations to the power of the latter, and 
operated as a check and restraint upon them. 

During the summer of 1885 there seems to have been a 
growing impression among the white miners that they had, 
or ought to have, an exclusive right to work the mines ,• that 
the company was in duty bound to give employment to all 
white men who applied , that the Chinamen were interlopers, 
and should be driven out to make room for white men ; in 
short, that affairs should be restored to the condition in which 
they were in 1875 before the precipitate action of the strik- 
ing miners forced the employment of Chinamen upon the 
company. No warrant for any such expectation could be 
found. Nor, indeed, was the matter ever formally brought 
to the attention of the company's officers, though John L. 



46 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



Lewis of Denver, holding official relation with the Miners' 
Union, seems to have interested himself in the matter. Some 
of the newspapers which strove to make the company respon- 
sible for driving the oppressed miners to desperation laid 
much stress upon the circumstance that Mr. Lewis had called 
the attention of the company's officers to the alarming con- 
dition of affairs, and the danger of an outbreak, some days 
"before the disturbances occurred. The reference is to two 
letters written to Beckwith, Quinn, & Co., and Superintend- 
ent D. O. Clark of the coal-mining department. These 
letters are as follows : - — 

Denver, Col., Aug. 28, 1885. 

Beckwith, Quinn, & Co., Evanston, Wyo. 

Gentlemen Sirs, — It pains me greatly to have to call your attention to 
the fact that the Chinese problem at Rock Springs is assuming a grave 
attitude. Were it not for the fact that I am sensible there will be an 
outburst of indignation against these people, I would not trouble you 
with correspondence upon the matter. But sensible as I am that unless 
a change is effected immediately there will be an outbreak, I respectfully 
notify you of the storm that is brewing. It is useless for me to beat 
about the bush in this matter. The consequences are inevitable. There 
is nearly seventy-five of our men lying idle at Rock Springs at the present 
time, while the Chinese are flooding in there by the score. This is not 
consistent with the principle you approved of whilst we were in Omaha. 

Our men at Carbon are deprived of their just share of work by reason 
of this unjust way of doing business. I shall hate to see a strike take 
place, but there seems no alternative to me at present. I am for peace 
first and always, but it must be such that will concede to our men " a fair 
day's wage for a fair day's work." 

Comparing Carbon with Colorado miners, they are far behind in the 
race. And Rock Springs are much farther still. Please let me hear from 
you what it is that prompts you to this policy which you seem to be 
carrying into vigorous action. I shall respectfully await a reply. 

Yours, 

(Signed) JOHN L. LEWIS, 

368 Larimer Street. 

Denver, Col., Aug. 28, 1885- 
D. O Clark, Esq., Union Coal Department, Omaha. 

My Dear Sir, — Although I have been lying sick in my bed for the past 
four weeks, I have been flooded with correspondence from Wyoming. 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 47 



the sum and substance of -which is, that the Chinese are having all the 
work they can do, working night and day, whilst our men at Rock Springs 
are left out in the cold. I understand that they are now working almost 
day and night, whilst Carbon men have worked but one day in the last 
two weeks. This makes the situation terribly aggravating, and in spite 
of my efforts will undoubtedly result in a severe struggle if longer con- 
tinued. 

For God's sake do what you can to avoid this calamity ; the pressure 
is more than I can bear. See that justice is done to all the men at 
Carbon, and to the unemployed portion at Rock Springs. 

This is surely not consistent with the doctrine preached by Mr. 
Beckwith whilst at Omaha. 

Please let me hear from you early. 

Yours truly, 

(Signed) JOHX L. LEWIS, 

368 Larimer Street. 

These letters, it will be observed, are elated at Denver, and 
on the 29th of August. They accordingly reached Evans- 
ton and Omaha respectively, barely in advance of the out- 
break of Sept. 2. There was thus no time, even had there 
been the disposition, to inquire into the ground of Mr. Lewis's 
complaints. It will be noticed, moreover, that he proceeds 
upon the assumption heretofore referred to, that the employ- 
ment of Chinamen was in itself not only a reasonable ground 
of complaint, but such a grievance as was likely, if persisted 
in, to produce "an outbreak of indignation." Under the 
circumstances, already related, attending the introduction 
of the Chinese into the mines, it was hardly reasonable to 
suppose the company would at once, upon Mr. Lewis's 
demand, reverse its policy, and, without discussion or guar- 
anty as to the future, dismiss workmen against whom there 
was no cause of complaint, and put itself again at the mercy 
of men who had already shown themselves so overbearing 
and unreasonable. 

Meanwhile the emergency foreshadowed by Mr. Lewis did 
not occur. A strike, unaccompanied by violence, would not 
have closed the door to an adjustment based on a mutual 
and perhaps a better understanding. This the officials of 
the company desired. They were under instructions to lose 



48 THE CHINESE MASSACRE at bock springs. 



no opportunity to bring it about. But the original mistake 
on the part of the miners in 1875 was repeated and aggra- 
vated in 1885. They left nothing to reason. It never 
entered into their calculations, that the company could be 
reached in any other way than by brute force, or that there 
could be any settlement of differences except upon a final 
finding as to which was the stronger; nor did it occur to 
them as a possibility, that there might be another side to the 
case than their own, and that the owners of the mines had 
at least the right of being consulted as to the management 
of their own property. 

Time and intelligent discussion might have brought clearer 
views, and paved the way to a better understanding ; but the 
accidental altercation between the Chinese and white miners 
on the morning of Sept. 2 precipitated a crisis with its hor- 
rible culmination of murder, arson, and pillage. 

The story of the outbreak already quoted from " The Rock 
Springs Independent " is from the point of view of a sympa- 
thizer with the anti-Chinese sentiment, but, so far as can be 
learned, is in its recital of facts correct. The statement of 
Mr. James A. Evans, the foreman at the mine when the dif- 
ficulty began, covers details of the affair not included in this 
account, and is as follows : — 

I went to No. 6 mines in the morning to measure all the entries, 
work done in that month, and gave orders to stop all the entries after 
that day. Starting to measure at No. 5 entry, where there are eight China- 
men working in top and bottom entries, I told the Chinamen that they 
had to go and start to work in rooms on the next day. I went with one of 
them, and showed him where the eight men were to start, and marked out 
the four places for them to work in next day. Went down to No. 13 
entry, in which there are white men working, and I said to them that the 
entry was to be stopped after that day, and that they could go to No. 5 
entry or No. 11 entry, to open rooms; and I told David Brookman, if they 
chose to go to No. 5 entry, to mark out two more rooms in there for 
them. Mr. Brookman did so, and told the men to go and start in the 
first two rooms that were marked. 

On the morning of the 1st of September, 1885, four of the Chinese 
came to work, and the other four staid at home. The four that came 
to work started in the two inside rooms of the four that were marked. 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 49 



The two white men brought up their tools from entry 13, and started in 
the two outside rooms. Next morning, on the second day of the mouth, 
the four Chinamen that were out the day before came in, and started to 
work in those places ; when the white men came to work, the Chinamen 
were in those rooms that they had started the day before, and then started 
a dispute, Chinamen claiming that the rooms were marked for them, and 
there followed a fight. 

I was on the way to No. 6 mines, when I met a Chinaman running to 
meet me, stating, that there was a quarrel in the mines, and that the 
white men and Chinamen were fighting. I hastened up to the mines, and 
found most of the Chinamen out on top of the slope, and I told them to 
come down into the mines with me, and they came. When I got to No. 
5 entry, all the white men were out on the slope, waiting to go up in the 
cars, and I asked them what was the trouble, and some of them said that 
they were not going to suffer Chinamen to drive thein out of the mines ; 
and I asked them to come out of the cars, and come one side to reason the 
matter, that I thought it could all be settled very easily; but they would 
hot listen. One of them cried out, "Come on, boys; we may as w<ell 
finish it now, as long as we have commenced ; it has to be done anyhow." 
And I told them that they could not go up in the cars, and one of them 
said, " Come on, boys, we will walk up." After that they w 7 ent. I called 
on Isaiah Whitehouse, one of the two men that started on those two 
rooms, and talked to him, and he volunteered to go back to work. I 
asked him if he would go up the slope, and try and persuade the men to 
come back to work ; and he went, and reported to me afterwards that he 
did -so, but could not persuade any of them. 

I went up out of the slope in about an hour : and passing down be- 
tween No. 6 and the town, on the railroad there were twenty or thirty 
men with rifles, a little distance off, and after I passed they inarched 
down town in a body, and they paraded around town until noon ; then 
they dispersed. After dinner they gathered around in troops, here and 
there, chasing a Chinaman now and then. 

I went to No. 5 shaft after dinner ; and coming up out of the shaft 
about three o'clock, I saw a gang of men with rifles coming across the 
railroad bridge near No. 5 shaft, and going around behind Chinatown, 
and firing shots toward the houses, and the Chinamen gathering to- 
gether ; this w r as kept up for more than half an hour, when a man on 
horseback rode up to the crowd, and in a few moments half a dozen 
men w r ent toward the Chinese ; but before they reached them, the Chi- 
nese started away. Then the crowd rushed after them, firing shots. 
When they got to the houses they commenced breaking them, and soon 
after I saw one on fire, and then the others followed. The crowd then 
came across from there to town to a Chinese laundry, searched around, 
and started away, when somebody cried out, " This way, boys," and 



50 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



made another search, firing into the building ; and I was told that there 
was a Chinaman shot in that house. Then they started from there, and 
surrounded the house in which I was boarding, and asked if Evans was 
in. I heard them, and went out, and asked them if they wished to see 
me ; and one by the name of Allen Roberts said that they had come to 
the conclusion to ask me to leave town, and that they did not want to 
hurt me, and that they would give me from then until the train came in, 
to go. It was then near six o'clock, and the train left at twenty minutes 
past seven o'clock : so I left town when the train came in. 

Notice was given at the same time to Mr. W. II. O'Don- 
nell, an employe of Beckwith, Quinn, & Co., who acted as 
agent in engaging Chinese miners as follows : — 

Mr. O'Donxell, — You must not bring any more Chinamen to this 
town. Leave as soon as possible. 

Mr. O'Donnell left the same evening and on the same 
train as Mr. Evans, deeming his life in danger if he re- 
mained. 

As coming from an entirely disinterested source, the fol- 
lowing account of the affair, written from notes taken by 
a gentleman who happened to be passing through Rock 
Springs at the time, and published in many newspapers, will 
be of interest : ■ — ■ 

Situated in the south-western part of the Territory, Rock Springs is a 
place of six hundred or seven hundred inhabitants. The chief industry 
is coal-mining, and the mines are owned by the Union Pacific Railway 
Company. For some time the company, through agents, have employed 
Chinamen in these mines ; and on the day of the massacre there were 
five hundred Celestials in the Chinese colony, which was located in the 
east section of the town. 

All summer long among the white miners there has been developing a 
feeling of bitterness against the Chinese, nothing but a pretext being- 
wanted to make an attack. This pretext came Wednesday morning, 
Sept 2, when a quarrel arose in the mines, between a white miner and 
two Chinamen, over the possession of a "room." The fight in the mines 
became general, and did not end until one Chinaman had been killed, 
four severely wounded, and several white men badly hurt. All the work 
in the mines then ceased; the Chinamen going to their settlement, and 
the white miners returning to town, and arming themselves with any 
thing that would carry ball or shot. In the mean time, the Chinese had 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 51 



raised a flag of danger in Chinatown, and every Celestial in Rock Springs 
was making for his quarters. They appeared to realize the danger of 
their position, and were actively preparing to depart. ISTo sooner had 
the miners finished their dinners, than they began to assemble in the 
streets, and " Vengeance on the Chinese ! " was the universal cry, even 
some of the women joining in the demonstration. A vote was then 
taken, and the immediate expulsion of the Mongolians was determined 
upon. Seventy-five armed men, followed by a crowd of boys armed 
with clubs, shovels, picks, and drills, took up their march for China- 
town, proceeding down the railroad-track. There was a party of China- 
men at work beside the railroad, and the shooting opened on them ; but 
they cleared the way in season to escape serious injury. When within 
a short distance of the settlement, the mob halted, and sent forward a 
committee to warn the Chinese that they must leave the place within an 
hour. A reply was received that they would go in that time ; but hardly 
had thirty minutes elapsed before the crowd moved on toward the enemy, 
yelling like wild men, and shooting every Chinaman who was in sight. 
The terrible scene that followed cannot be overdrawn. Without making 
a show of resistance, the Chinese fled towards the mountains, some hat- 
less, some shoeless, and all without their effects. Running after them, 
firing indiscriminately, came the white miners, now crazed by the reports 
of the firearms, and groans of the wounded and dying Chinamen who 
had been shot before they could escape from the settlement, some even 
before they left their doors. 

Fleeing for their lives, the Chinamen shaped their course in the 
direction of Bitter Creek, the miners in hot pursuit, and shooting as rap- 
idly as the weapons could be loaded. After the Celestials reached the 
hills, the shooting ceased, and the inhuman mob marched back to China- 
town, and began looting the houses, of which there were about forty, — 
the property of the Union Pacific, and worth probably five hundred dol- 
lars each. Every thing of value was taken from the houses, and they 
were then set on fire. The flames forced out quite a number of China- 
men who had, until then, eluded detection. These poor fellows were 
either murdered outright, or fatally wounded and thrown into the burning 
buildings there to be roasted alive. Not less than fifteen met their fate 
in this way; and there is now but little doubt that there were at least 
fifty Chinamen killed altogether. All the afternoon and throughout the 
night, pistol-shots could be heard in the direction of Chinatown. The 
burning buildings gave the picture a weird coloring, and the first forci- 
ble crusade against the Chinese in America will long be remembered by 
those who participated in or witnessed it. 

During the night, guards were placed about the town to protect the 
property of the citizens, while the expelled Chinamen rested their limbs 
on the hills several miles distant, but not too far to witness the destruc- 



52 THE CHINESE 31 ASS ACRE AT BOCK SPIUNGS. 



tion of their homes. Thursday morning, Chinatown presented a terrible 
sight. Protruding from the smouldering ruins were the charred remains 
of eleven Chinamen, and a sickening odor permeated the entire settle- 
ment. Clothing, bedding, household utensils, and provisions were scat- 
tered about in confusion, and traces of the preceding day's bloody work 
could be noticed at every turn. To the east of the town, several bodies 
were recovered of Chinamen who had been shot while endeavoring to 
escape, and who were left by their companions to suffer and die where 
they fell. In the morning the Chinamen who sought refuge in the hills 
came down to the railroad, and Division Superintendent George W. Dick- 
inson ordered them brought to Evanston on a freight-train. The ref- 
ugees, about four hundred and fifty in number, arrived at Evanston about 
four o'clock, Thursday afternoon, half starved, and half frightened to 
death. They were quartered at the Chinese settlement in Evanston, their 
fellow-countrymen doing every thing possible to provide for their comfort. 
The county sheriff telegraphed to Governor Warren at Cheyenne for 
troops, and the Union Pacific officials were promptly notified. Immedi- 
ately after their arrival in Evanston, the Chinamen went to a gun-store, 
and purchased all the revolvers the establishment had in stock ; and no 
doubt this action, in a measure, averted another attack, for the anti- 
Chinese feeling in Evanston is as bitter as it is in Rock Springs. It was 
estimated that there were not more than fifteen men in the place, includ- 
ing county and railroad officials, who would turn their hand to save the 
persecuted Celestials. The saloons were closed, and deputies placed on 
guard to protect the railroad property, while knots of men gathered 
about the streets, discussing the situation in whispers. Fortunately there 
was no outbreak, and the next afternoon at two o'clock a special train 
bearing Governor Warren and Assistant General Superintendent Edward 
Dickinson arrived on the scene. Troops were ordered, — one company 
to Rock Springs, and two companies to Evanston. The Chinamen had 
very little money in their possession, and were dependent upon their 
Evanston brethren for food as well as shelter. Ah Say, the chief inter- 
preter, was met by the writer, Thursday evening. lie is a man appar- 
ently forty years old, with a care-worn but intelligent face. He was 
extremely nervous, and his conversation evidenced intense agitation. In 
reply to an interrogation as to whether or not his government would be 
likely to take any steps in the matter, he replied that the massacre would 
doubtless be the subject of some correspondence between the two nations, 
but would result in nothing more ; as his country objected strongly to 
the emigration of her subjects, and would probably hold this affair up as 
a warning to others not to leave China. He was urgent in his appeals 
to Superintendent Dickinson to provide something for the men to do 
without delay. Governor Warren, w T ho, by the way, was born among 
the Berkshire hills, had feared there would be an outbreak, but had no 



4 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 53 

idea it would be so serious. The question of Chinese labor had now 
assumed a serious phase all through the Western country, and prompt 
measures were necessary to prevent recurrence of the outbreak. He 
should favor maintaining troops at the threatened points until the matter 
was definitely settled. 

Along the Union Pacific Railroad across Wyoming, there are miles 
and miles of country where nothing but sage-brush grows, and where 
there is not the first indication of civilization,, aside from the railroad. 
White men, when sent out on these sections, work a month, draw their 
pay, and leave, thereby causing the company oftentimes serious incon- 
venience. The Chinese can be put at work in these same places, do their 
work well, and be relied upon year in and year out. In the mines the 
white men are grumblers, never appearing to be contented, and whenever 
they find that the company is short of coal, they never lose an opportu- 
nity to strike. 

A remarkable fact in connection with the butchery is, that but a 
few, if any, of the mob are citizens of the United States. Cornishmen, 
Danes, and Poles appeared to predominate. Such a thing as law was 
farthermost from their minds ; nor were the consequences of their fiend- 
ish crusade made the subject of a moment's thought. But perhaps there 
was little need for reflection in regard to the consequences ; for men con- 
versant with the population say it is an impossibility to empanel a jury 
m Sweetwater County that will convict even one of the murderers- Cer- 
tain it is, that, unless the United States interfere in the matter, very few 
of them can be brought to justice. It is argued that surely there must 
be some law-abiding citizens in the county : there may be, but they aro 
not m sight. 

For some time previous to the Rock Springs massacre, a rumor was 
afloat that there was a preconcerted movement afoot, to forcibly expel the 
Chinese from Rock Springs, Evanston, and another mining camp in that 
section of the country, — Carbon. The first attack, it was said, was to 
have been made at Carbon, but the raid at Rock Springs seems to have 
interrupted the programme, and nothing was heard of the alleged plans 
thereafter. 

Meanwhile the lawless sentiment prevails in the vicinity, but is held 
in abeyance by the presence of United States troops. 

There is one other point of view of this transaction which 
is not wholly without interest. It is that of the men, inof- 
fensive and unoffending, ignorant of the deadly hostility of 
their fellow-workmen, as they were of the tongue in which 
they might cry for quarter against it, against whom this un- 
heralded tempest of wrath burst with such fury. The arrival 



54 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



at Rock Springs, on the same day with the Government 
Directors, of the Chinese consuls at San Francisco and New 
York, with their interpreter, afforded the former an oppor- 
tunity of hearing the testimony of some of the Chinamen 
who were witnesses of the massacre, and victims of the 
accompanying outrages. 

Ah Kuhn, an intelligent Chinaman, speaking English after 
a fashion, and acting accordingly as interpreter and business 
manager for the Chinese miners, was called, and answered 
inquiries as follows : — 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Where were you on the day this difficulty oc- 
curred ? 

Ans. I was in No. 3 mine. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. When did you first hear that there was any 
trouble ? 

Ans About half-past nine I hear there was trouble over in No. 6 
mine. I go down Rock Springs with China boy to office. I ask for Mr. 
Evans. I ask him, " You know trouble over in No. 6 mine ? " He say 
yes. He go No. 3 mine ; he stop about hour ; 1 wait lor him, I want see 
him again. He drive wagon up to No. 4 mine. I see lots white men 
(pretty near a hundred) come across from saloon, and go in section-house. 
White man he knock China boy down with brick on head ; boy he holler 
and come to Chinatown. 1 stop him, 1 tell him "Keep still.'' About a 
hundred white men go up to No. 3 mine with rifles. All boys get scared 
and run away. I say, " Come back." Fellow on hill with rifle stop and 
shot good many times and come down. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you see some of the Chinamen shot? 

Ans. No, I down in cellar, no see 'em. I tell Mr. Evans all boys 
scared. About eight o'clock some boy he come in and take old boxes 
and pile 'em all together; he say to another boy, "You get some 
matches ? " I feel awful sorry : not know how to get out. He go out 
about five minutes; I tell him, " Boy better go." Chinese boy he 
would not go in house ,• boys hit him ; he fall down on the ground, 
and boys get scared and run. I stay in cellar from three to eight 
o'clock. About half-past ten I see lots of men coming down from No. 
6 mine. Good many have rifles. I go up to No. 3 mine, and tell 
Mr. Miller he drive wagon over to Chinatown. I tell him, " White 
man make much trouble, driving Chinamen away." Mr. Miller say, 
" No get scared. ' Chinamen work in No 4 room. No. 5 entry ; white 
man come in and drive Chinaman out. Knock China boys down on the 
ground ; boss he send car down and bring China boy out, and send for 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 55 



wagon and take boy back to his camp. About eight o'clock I saw all 
houses burning up. I come out of cellar. Three or four white men 
came along and kick door, and say, " You better come out, or we drag you 
out." I come out, and run about two hundred yards. I turn my head, I 
look back and see three or four white men standing. He see me, and 
shot me four times ; I fall down and drop the money, and ran up to No. 
4 mine. I went down the track across the river. I walk up the track, 
and see good many China boys, about seventy or eighty. I walk up to the 
railroad section-house, knock at the door, and say, " Mr., you better open 
door and let me in." He say, " Who's that? " I say, " China boy." He 
open the door, and let me come into that house. I say, "I am nearly 
dead, 1 got nothing to eat." I ask him, "You give me some bread?" 
He say, "You got some bread." He say, "What's the matter at Rock 
Springs ? " I say, " Lots trouble, drive China boys out." I sat down and 
took nip of water; took piece of bread and eat 'em; I feel much better; 
I say, "Mr., you let me have hand-car I go next station." He say. "I 
have no hand-car." In morning I started back. He say, "You better 
not go back to Rock Springs," and I went back to Evanston, and came 
back on the seventh of the month. 

(Ah Kuhn had about sixteen hundred dollars in gold 
which he dropped when fired at. Remembering the spot 
where it was lost, he went there and looked for it on his re- 
turn, but it had all been gathered up by the rioters.) 

The statements of other Chinamen were received through 
an interpreter. They were substantially as follows : 

LEO QARQWANG. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. How long have you worked here in these mines? 
Ans. Ten years. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Where were you on the day the Chinese quarters 
were burned ? 

Ans. I was working in No. 6 mine early in the morning, at four 
o'clock. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. How long did you work there on that day? 

Ans. I commenced working there at four o'clock in the morning on 
the second day of September, and worked until a little past seven o'clock 
in the morning. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. How did you come to stop work then? 

Ans. I was working from about four o'clock until about seven o'clock, 
when the white miners came in and commenced assaulting the Chinamen- 



56 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



Gov. Dir. Savage. What occurred after the white miners came in? 
What did they do, and what did you do ? 

Ans. About seven o'clock that morning, while I was working in the 
mine, some white miners, numbering more than fourteen men, armed 
with shovels and spades and picks and tools, came in the room and asked, 
" What do you Chinamen mean by working here ? You have no business 
to work here.'' I and the others told him, that "this room has been 
assigned to us by the boss foreman, and that is the reason why we are 
working here. We received orders to work here. We cannot help it, 
we received orders to work here ; this room has been assigned to us." 1 
also said, " We Chinamen do not want to have any trouble ; if this room 
has not been assigned to us, we would leave here altogether." Soon after 
we finished talking this, the white miners commenced striking and beat- 
ing us, and six of them surrounded me, and struck me on the head with 
a shovel. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Is that cut on your forehead the result of a blow? 

Ans. Yes [a cut on left side of his forehead, about one-quarter of an 
inch deep]. In the mean time they were assaulting the other Chinamen 
one by one. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. What happened after you left the mine? 

Ans. I fell down when I received my wounds. While they were en- 
gaged in striking the other Chinamen, all the white miners blocked the 
mouth of the mine, and surrounded that place so Chinamen could not get 
out until the arrival of a pit-car ordered by white foreman. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. How many Chinamen were there in this entry? 

Ans. Four rooms, and two men in each. 

Gov. Dir Savage. What happened after pit-car came ? 

Ans. Afterwards the foreman in the coal-car took all the Chinamen 
out of the mine, and took them over near No. 6 mine. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Where did they go? 

Ans. They went back to No. 6 mine, where there are some camps, 
some wooden buildings where the Chinamen live. 
Gov Dir. Savage. What happened after that? 

Ans. As soon as they (Chinamen) arrived at No. 6 mine, they went 
into their own camps and sent for doctors to attend to the wounded men ; 
and two of them were wounded so they could not move at all. They 
staid there until about nine o'clock, when they went to No. 3 mine where 
they had some medical treatment. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. What happened after that? 

Ans. W T e staid there until about three o'clock, when I saw a number 
of white miners, armed with rifles, divided into two parties ; one was 
coming towards No- 3 mine, and the other party came by railroad section- 
house. They were firing on their way to the two directions when all 
the Chinamen were fleeing just like a flock of sheep, because none of us 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 57 



were armed. We returned no fire against the white miners, as we had no 
arms. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. What became of the wounded men who were 
under medical treatment ? 

Ans. I had to take care of myself, and was fleeing and running at 
the time*, and could not notice whether the wounded men were running 
or not. I saw none of them since the attack until now. I have only- 
seen one of them since. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you see any men killed by these shots? 

Ans. 1 did not notice, because I was running at that time. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you hear the shots fired? 

Ans. Yes, I heard the shots firing. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. What did you do yourself? Where did you go? 

Ans. I ran across the hills, and lost my road. I did not know where 
I was going until several days afterwards, when I found the railway, and 
got on the train and went back to Green River. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Were you alone, or were there others with you? 

Ans. At first when we started running I saw some others running to- 
gether ; a little while afterwards I missed the others, and could not see 
where they went to. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Do you know how many there were in these two 
parties with rifles who attacked the camp ? 

Ans. I noticed most of them had rifles at that time. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. How many ? 

Ans. I should say over a hundred of them had rifles. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. How many were there who did not have rifles? 

Ans. I am not sure; I should judge, sixty or seventy. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did they go to the houses of the Chinese before 
they left ? 

Ans. They came right close to the houses, almost right in, when the 
Chinamen ran away. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did the Chinamen who ran away take any thing 
with them? 

Ans. I saw no Chinamen take any thing with them, because they had 
no time to take any thing. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. How did you live when you were in the moun- 
tains during these several days ? 

Ans. I had nothing to eat; I was almost half-starved. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. How many days were you in the desert? 

A ns. I ran away on the 2d, and was there until the evening of the 
6th of September. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you see any Chinamen during these four 
days ? 

Ans. I only met one Chinaman, who was on a ranch. I was staying 



58 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



at Green River on the night of the 6th, and next morning I started by- 
train, and went back to Evanston 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Do you recognize or know any of the white men 
whom you saw attacking the Chinese ? 

Ans. I cannot identify any of them. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Could you recognize the men who came to your 
room in No. 5 entry, and ordered you away ? 

Ans. I think I can only recognize one of them. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Can you give the name of the man whom you do 
recognize ? 

Ans. His name is George ; and the other one who struck my fellow- 
workman, his name is Isaiah. The boss foreman assigned two rooms to 
the Chinamen in No. 5 entry. We did not work in his room ; we worked 
in No. 2 and No. 3 rooms. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. Which room were you driven out of? 

Ans. From No. 2 room. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. Did you work the day before the assault ? 
Ans. We worked in No. 2 the day before, about two hours. 
Gov. Dir. Hanna. Had anybody worked in No. 3 room the day 
before ? 

Ans. We did the day before. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. Who worked in No. 1 room the day before ? 
Ans. No Chinamen worked in No. 1 room. Chinamen worked in 
No. 4 room. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. Had any work been done in any of these rooms 
before the Chinamen went in '? 

Ans. No. 2, 3, and 4 rooms are all new rooms, and had all been 
assigned to Chinamen. No white men ever worked in these rooms. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. Did Isaiah or George ever work in No 1 ? 

Ans. Isaiah and his partner worked in No. 1, and tried to quarrel 
with us to get No. 2 room. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. Were any of the rooms beyond No. 4 worked by 
white men at that time ? 

Ans. Chinamen also w 7 orked in No. 5 room ; no white miners worked 
in this No. 5. 

LEE FANG. 

About three o'clock on the 2d inst. I saw a number of white men, 
amongst whom there was a white woman, about forty yards away, coming- 
in different directions towards the Chinese buildings, and commenced 
shooting at the Chinamen. I saw with my own eyes two Chinamen shot 
dead by three firings in succession. They fired three shots, and two 
Chinamen were killed on the spot. They dropped dead near the bank of 
the creek. 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 59 



Gov. Dir. Savage. Were none of the men in the mines at this time 
of the day ? 

Ans- Some of them were in the mines, and some were in the buildings. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you see this woman fire any shots? 

Ans. I am convinced the same woman got to firing; these were the 
shots that killed the two Chinamen. They were killed with a revolver. 

Gov. Dir Savage. How near was she to the men? 

Ans. Close to the door of her own house, when Chinamen were run- 
ning past for safety. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Do you know where this house is where this 
woman stood? 

Ans. I do not remember quite distinctly about the house, but it is a ' 
house near the bridge. It is the house close to the bridge on the left- 
hand side. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Could you recognize the woman ? 
Ans. I could recognize the woman if I see her again. 

LEO MAUWXK. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. State what you know about the shooting of the 
Chinese, and the burning of their places, on the 2d of September. 

Ans. I commenced working in No. 6 mine, on the morning of the 2d 
inst., until nine o'clock. About three o'clock in the afternoon I saw a 
number of white men armed with rifles, coming in different directions, 
attacking the Chinamen. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. What entry were you working in, in No. 6 mine? 

Ans. I was working in No. 4 room in No. 5 entry. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. How did the trouble start ? 

Ans. At about seven o'clock that morning, I saw a number of white 
men coming into the entry, numbering about ten men altogether, and they 
asked why we occupied these rooms ; they said, " We work in these 
rooms ; you have no business to work here." I said, " These rooms have 
been assigned to us by the order of the boss foreman.'* They took up 
their shovels, and struck the Chinamen. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Had the white men been working before in any 
of the rooms where Chinamen were then working? 

Ans. None, except in No. 1, had. ever been worked by white men. 
The white men only w T orked in No. 1 room. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Which room is it they were trying to turn you 
out of? 

Ans. I was driven out of No. 4. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. At three o'clock w 7 hen you saw the white men 
coming down, what did you do? 

Ans. At that time I was in No. 27 camp (Chinese quarters). I saw 



60 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



the white men coming in different directions with rifles ; I was in camp 
at the time. One of the parties came over to my camp, and asked me 
if I hadn't better come out, or they Mould kill us. I came out, and 
directly I came out they commenced firing shots. 

Gov. Dir. Savage At whom were they firing ? 

Ans. They were shooting at Chinamen in the camps. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. What did you do ? 

Ans. I was so frightened I tried to run away, and when I was run- 
ning 1 was shot with a rifle through the right arm. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you see the man who fired the shot? 

Ans. I saw a great many firing, but cannot say which one shot me 

Gov. Dir. Savage. How many shots were probably fired? 

Ans. They were firing in succession at the time ; I could not say how 
many. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you see any one killed? 
Ans. I was so frightened at the time that I could not notice any one 
killed. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. "Where did yon go? 

Ans. I went as far as Green River that day, after running all the 
time until four o'clock in the morning. I got to Green River the next 
morning ; from Green River I went to Evanston. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Do you know the men with whom you had the 
difficulty in the mine at seven o'clock in the morning ? Could you recog- 
nize them ? 

Ans. No, sir; I cannot recognize any one, because 1 did not work 
there very long. 

Gov. Dir. Hanxa, Do you know whether any of these rooms in No. 
5 entry that were worked by Chinamen, were started originally by the 
white miners ? 

Ans. I know none of these new rooms have ever been assigned to 
the white miners, but to the Chinamen, except No. 1 room. There never 
were white miners working there before. 

Gov- Dir. Hanxa. How many days had you worked in the rooms in 
No. 5 entry ? 

Ans- I only worked a day and a half, because these were new rooms. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. Did the white miners commence in No. 1 room 
at the same time that you commenced in these ? 

Ans. Yes, sir; almost the same time. They commenced the same 
day. 

Gov. Dir. Hanna. Do you know the white men working in No. 1? 
Ans. No, sir ; I don't know any of them. 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 61 



LEE SHIK. 

I am a miner in No. 3 mine, and live in 26 camp. I did not go to 
work that day (Sept. 2) ; but I saw about nine o'clock a number of 
white miners carrying rifles, go toward the bridge, and have a meeting 
there ; and up to a little past three o'clock they came in different direc- 
tions, and commenced attacking and shooting the Chinamen. I saw a 
number of the white miners carrying revolvers, who commenced firing at 
the Chinamen from about fifty yards of the Chinese buildings ; and after 
they commenced firing volley upon volley, the Chinamen commenced 
running away, and as soon as the Chinamen commenced running away 
they set fire upon the buildings where a great many Chinamen lived, 
which resulted in a great loss of money and property. In the mean time 
I saw the white miners shooting some in the arms and back; and these 
wounded men now lie at Evanston for medical treatment. I also saw 
another Chinaman wounded; he was shot in the head; he walked a few 
paces, and fell down dead. Although I did not see any more shot, I judge 
a great many more were killed by the shots at the time, and some of 
them burned to death. I saw a great many Chinamen running in differ- 
ent directions for safety ; and as far as I know some of them are missing, 
and have not returned yet. They may have died from starvation. This 
was an unpremeditated attack upon these Chinese ; they returned no 
shots against these rioters. I believe they were all miners of this place 
implicated. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Can you recognize. any of them? 
Ans. I could not recognize any of them, as I was so many yards from 
the place. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you expect any attack from the miners be- 
fore it actually occurred V 

Ans. No, I did not expect it. 

YOU KWONG. 

A little past three o'clock on the 2d inst., I saw a number of white 
men armed with rifles, coming from different directions towards the Chi- 
nese buildings, and commenced firing at these Chinese, and then the 
Chinamen ran in every direction ; and after that I saw them set fire on 
the buildings. The Chinamen were so frightened at that time that they 
ran away in all directions. I also ran away too ; but I know almost none 
of them took any thing with them when they ran away, because they had 
not time to take any thing with them ; and they left every thing in the 
buildings. I believe there was a great loss of property and money. After 
I came back, in a few days, I saw a number of dead bodies of Chinamen. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Did you see any killed? 

Ans. I did not see any of them shot. 



62 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



Gov. Dir. Savage. How long were you out in the hills? 

Aiis. I commenced running through the hills since four o'clock that 
day until the 4th, when I got back to Evanston. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. What did you have to eat in the mean time ? 

Ans. 1 had only one meal when I was on Miller's ranch. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. How many were with you on this flight? 

Ans. Five men with me, and afterwards they all disappeared. 

Gov. Dir. Savage. Was it customary for miners to keep their money 
with them as they made their wages monthly? 

Ans. They keep their money in their own camps. I had forty dollars 
kept in my trunk, and some other clothes and property in the cellar, which 
was all burned out and lost. 

To these accounts of the outbreak, and the attendant cir- 
cumstances, little remains to be added. The purpose of this 
paper has been to place these narratives on record, and to 
add to them a chronological statement of the relations of the 
company with its employes at Rock Springs, in such a way 
as to throw all the light possible upon the transaction of Sept. 
2, and the causes that led up to it. 

The sequel of the affair, the steps taken by the company 
to regain possession and control of its property, the attitude 
towards it of the miners, the efforts made to induce its em- 
ployes in other departments to make common cause with the 
Rock Springs assassins, remain to be referred to. 

At the close of the day of Sept. 2, Rock Springs was 
in control of a mob. The company's property had been 
burned, between forty and fifty of its employes had been 
killed, and a large number more driven into the desert ; 
others of its officers and employes had been forced to leave 
the place in terror of their lives. The Union Pacific had 
been thrown out of possession of the coal-mines upon which 
it depended largely for the means of continuing the move- 
ment of its trains; and the officers of the law in Sweetwater 
County confessed themselves powerless either to initiate pro- 
ceedings for the punishment of the crimes, or to restore to 
the company the control of its property. The Governor of 
the Territory, when appealed to for assistance, could only 
answer that the Territorial authorities of themselves, being 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 63 



without organized military, were equally helpless, and that 
the sole dependence was upon the Federal Government; to 
which, through proper channels, representations of the exist- 
ing state of affairs were promptly made, accompanied by a 
call for troops. 

Technical questions concerning the construction of the 
law known as the "posse comitatus act " of 1878 delayed 
decisive action ; but on Saturday, the 5th, detachments from 
garrisons nearest the scene arrived at Rock Springs and 
Evanston, and went into camp. Until this protection was 
secured, the company could do nothing more than send out 
relief trains to gather up the terror-stricken survivors of the 
massacre, who were wandering along the line of the road for 
miles in either direction. For this work of mere humanity, 
the " soulless " corporation did not escape scathing censure. 

The difficulties experienced in getting troops ordered to 
the scene of riot, and subsequently in securing instructions 
to those in command from the War Department, necessary 
to make them available for the protection of life and defence 
of property in the event of a renewal of the disturbance, 
will more clearly appear from the following telegrams re- 
ceived and transmitted between Sept. 3 and Sept. 9. 

Omaha, Neb., Sept. 3, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jun., Boston, Mass. 

One hundred armed men have driven all Chinese from Rock Springs, 
killing one and injuring child ; have burned the houses. Governor Warren 
is asking for troops to suppress riot, and requests that you communicate 
with President. They will will not permit Chinese to return ; also noti- 
fied Evans, coal department engineer, to leave town, and, like our friend 
S. T. Smith, he went. 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 

Boston, Mass., Sept. 3, 1885. 

S. R Callaway, Omaha, Neh. 

Your message received. Have applied to the Secretary of War in 
support of Governor Warren's request. Keep me advised of any new de- 
velopments. 

CHARLES F. ADAMS, Jun. 



64 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



Omaha, Neb., Sept. 3, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jun , Boston, Mass. 

The people of Rock Springs are well armed, and will not allow any of 
the Chinese to return. There are about six hundred of thetn scattered 
through the Territory. Governor Warren is now at Rock Springs with 
Superintendent Dickinson. He suggests our taking Chinese to Evans- 
ton in the mean time, so that they can be fed. The local authorities are 
wholly powerless, and the city is in the hands of a mob. 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 

Omaha, Neb., Sept. 3, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jun., Boston, Mass. 

Since telegraphing you this morning, bodies of fourteen dead Chinese 
have been found at Rock Springs. Superintendent there wires supposi- 
tion that as many more have been killed. 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 
Omaha, Neb., Sept. 3, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jun , Boston, Mass. 

Latest advices from Rock Springs give fifteen killed, and expected 
many additional in ruins. One hundred houses burned, fifty of which 
belong to the company. Governor Warren at Rock Springs, and has tele- 
graphed President Cleveland for assistance. Every thing reported quiet 
now. 

S. R. CALLAWAY, 
Omaha, Neb., Sept. 4, 1885, 

C. F. Adams, Jun., Boston, Mass. 

Tisdel, superintendent, has been obliged to leave Rock Springs. There 
is evidently a movement under the protection of the Knights of Labor to 
prevent company from employing any Chinese. Dickinson thinks we 
had better close all the mines, but I fear this would result in spreading 
the trouble to shops and cause further destruction of property. We 
should know quick as possible if we are to have any protection from 
United States Government. Coroner's jury have found that murdered 
Chinese came to their deaths by causes unknown. 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 
Omaha, Neb., Sept. 4, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jun., Boston, Mass. 

General Howard has not yet received any instructions from Washing- 
ton. Miners at Rock Springs have just broken into Beckwith, Quinn, & 
Co ? s. large powder-house there. It is reported they are organizing at 
Evanston to drive Chinese out of town there. Unless prompt action is 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 65 



taken by the United States Government, there will likely be further 
loss of life and property. 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 
Boston, Mass., Sept. 4, 1885. 

S. R. Callaway, Omaha, Neb. 

How will Rock Springs affair affect your contracts for coal delivery ? 
Yield nothing to the rioters. Call on the Government to preserve the 
peace, and, if necessary, arrange to have coal from Council Bluffs, Den- 
ver, and Salt Lake. 

C. F. ADAMS, Jun. 
Omaha, Neb., Sept. 4, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jun., Boston, Mass. 

Operations at Rock Springs almost entirely suspended. Cannot form 
any estimate of our ability to carry out coal contracts until we know 
what General Government purpose doing. At present, our property is in 
the hands of mob, and our officers have been obliged to leave town. 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 

Omaha, Neb., Sept. 4, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jun., Boston, Mass. 

Chinese at Grass Creek mine have been given twenty minutes to leave 
the town. It is expected the same order will be given at Evanston to- 
night. General Howard has just received orders to send four companies 
troops to Rock Springs to protect United States mail. They will leave 
to-night. 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 
Omaha, Neb., Sept. 4, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jun., Boston, Mass. 

General Howard has just received the following from Governor Warren : 
viz., " Rock Springs, 4th. I fear further trouble all along line. Armed 
men still keep Chinese out of town. Sheriff at Evanston mine tele- 
graphs he believes outrage of yesterday at Rock Springs will be repeated 
there unless civil authority strengthened by troops. I wired President 
and Secretary of War during night. What instructions have you regard- 
ing my request?" General has replied, " No orders received from Wash- 
ington." 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 
Omaha, Neb., Sept. 5, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Boston, Mass. 

Governor Warren telegraphed the President yesterday as follows : — 
"Evanston, Wyoming, 4th. Unlawful combination and conspiracies exist 
among coal-miners and others in Uintah and Sweetwater Counties, in 



G6 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



this Territory, which prevent individuals and corporations from enjoy- 
ment and protection of their property, and obstructs execution of the 
law. Open insurrection at Rock Springs ; property burned ; sixteen 
dead bodies found ; probably over fifty more under ruins. Seven hun- 
dred Chinamen driven from town, and have taken refuge at Evanston, 
and are ordered to leave there. Sheriff powerless to make necessary 
arrests and protect life and property, unless supported by organized 
bodies of armed men. Wyoming has no territorial militia ; therefore I 
respectfully and earnestly request the aid of United States troops, not 
only to protect the mails and mail routes, but that they may be in- 
structed to support civil authorities until order is restored, criminals 
arrested, and the suffering relieved.'* 

I believe he has since telegraphed that legislature is not in session, and 
cannot be convened in time to meet the emergency. Will you please say 
in what it is defective? The situation is alarming, and vigorous meas- 
ures should be taken to restore peace and order. Answer. 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 

Omaha, Sept. 5, 1885. 

C F. Adams, Jux., Boston, Mass. 

There' are now about eighty soldiers at Rock Springs, and eighty at 
Evanston. Thus far Governor Warren has been unable to get any orders 
from Washington to protect any thing but United-States mail. I, there- 
fore, have thought it not best to allow any of the superintendents at mines 
or Chinese to return to Rock Springs. The miners now demand increase 
of thirty cents per ton for mining. 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 
Omaha, Neb., Sept. 5, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jun., Boston, Mass. 

Thus far troops have orders only to protect United-States mails. 
Governor Warren telegraphs, asking us to represent to Secretary of War 
that our company cannot enjoy use and protection of property, unless 
troops will assist civil authority in making arrests to enable us to 
weed out all dangerous criminals and agitators, and provide protection 
for reasonable employes. Am now informed that they intend proceeding 
against the Mormons, and clean out all Mormon miners, because they 
will not join the Knights of Labor. As soon as we can get promise of 
protection from Governor, I propose putting all men back to work that 
will go, and discharge the ringleaders. Before taking this action, how- 
ever, I want assurance that we will be protected by troops. Tt is quite 
likely that it will result in a general strike of Knights of Labor along 
the road. There are over a hundred Chinese missing, majority of whom 
are supposed to have been massacred. 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 67 



Omaha, Neb., Sept. 6, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Just., Boston, Mass. 

Report (eight o'clock) miners have notified Beckwith if he did not 
clean out all Chinese at Evanston within three days, they would shoot 
him. They claim to be five hundred strong,, and to mean business. 
Unless some vigorous action is taken at once, I fear serious trouble will 
occur. No further instructions have yet been received from Washington. 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 

Omaha, Neb., Sept. 7, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jun., Boston, Mass. 

Although there is great excitement, there is no outbreak as yet. The 
men at Rock Springs demand dollar per ton where seventy cents hereto- 
fore has been paid. We have received no assurances yet of protection ; 
consequently neither the superintendent who was ordered away by the 
mob, nor the Chinese, will return to Rock Springs. 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 
Boston, Mass., Sept. 7, 1885. 

S. R. Callaway, Omaha, Neb. 

Mr. Bromley will leave for Omaha to-day to investigate, and formally 
report to the directors on the recent massacres. Government Director 
Alexander will follow on Wednesday. We wish to proceed with delib- 
eration in this matter, but no concession is to be made to the rioters. 
You must decline even to discuss matters with them until peace is 
restored. No increase of pay for mining can be considered. 

C. F. ADAMS, Jun. 

Omaha, Neb., Sept. 7, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jun., Boston, Mass. 

Following just received from Dickinson: "2 p.m. Governor Warren 
not heard from Washington. Nothing can be done without protection, 
unless it be to stop mines. The miners have just had another meeting, 
and say Chinese must go at once. Committee now on way to notify 
Beckwith Chinese all notified last night that if they entered mines to- 
day, not one would come out alive. ' 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 
Omaha, Neb., Sept 7, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jux., Boston, Mass. 

Governor Warren has telegraphed President from Evanston as fol- 
lows: "Referring to my several late telegrams, I respectfully submit 
that the unlawful organized mob in possession of coal-mines at Alrny, 
near here, will not permit Chinamen to approach their own homes, prop- 
erty, or employment. From the nature of outbreak, sheriff of county 



68 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



cannot rally sufficient posse, and Territorial government cannot sufficiently 
aid him. Insurrectionists know, through newspapers and despatches, that 
troops will not interfere under present orders; and moral effect of pres- 
ence of troops is destroyed. If troops were known to have orders to 
assist the sheriff's posse in case driven back, I am quite sure civil author- 
ities could restore order without actual use of soldiers. But, unless 
United States Government can find way to relieve us immediately, I be- 
lieve worse scenes than those at Rock Springs will follow, and all China- 
men driven from the Territory. I beg an early reply, and information 
regarding the attitude of the United States Government." 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 
Omaha, Neb., Sept. 7, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jun., Boston, Mass. 

Notice served on all Chinese at Almy not to enter mines, or they would 
be fired upon. Beckwith has notice to pay off all Chinese and get them 
out of town, and avoid trouble. Chinese scared, and will not go to work 
either on track or mines. Dickinson wires, " Generally understood troops 
will do nothing unless mail is interfered with." 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 
Omaha, Neb., Sept. 8, 1885. 

C. F- Adams, Jun., Boston, Mass. 

Have given orders to close down all mines at Almy, leave sufficient 
force there to protect property, and take all men who will go back to 
Rock Springs, install them, and then pay off all men who have in any 
manner participated in the riot. Special train is now running with large 
force troops from Winship, and will reach Evanston to-night. 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 
Omaha, Neb., Sept. 8, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jun., Boston, Mass. 

A committee composed of some of the miners and merchants of Rock 
Springs asked for interview with me. Please say quick if you approve 
following reply; if not, what course would you suggest? viz. : " I under- 
stand the object of your committee's visit to be the presentation of some 
grievances against officers coal department. As soon as the control and 
management of this company's property has been restored to it by Terri- 
torial or Federal authority, I will be glad to meet and discuss the matter 
with you. Until then it seems to me a conference can be productive of 
no beneficial results." 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE, AT BOCK SPRINGS. 69 



Boston, Mass., Sept. 8, 1885. 

S. R. Callaway, Omaha, Neb. 

I approve of your answer. These men represent felons. We cannot 
deal with them in any way until order is restored. Exercise great dis- 
cretion, but be perfectly firm. Our grievances against those this com- 
mittee represent are infinitely greater than any grievances they can ever 
represent against us or our officers. 

C. F. ADAMS, Jun. 
Omaha, Neb., Sept. 8, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jun., Boston, Mass. 

Orders have just been received at army headquarters here from the 
President to protect the Chinese at all hazards. Sufficient United States 
troops will be moved there by Wednesday morning to do this. 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 

Omaha, Neb., Sept. 9, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jun , Boston, Mass. 

Two hundred and fifty soldiers and six hundred and six Chinamen 
now on their way to Rock Springs. Will arrive there to-night. 

S. R. CALLAWAY. 

On the 9th of September, therefore, exactly one week after 
the outbreak took place, the company was put in a position 
where it could begin to see its way to the re-occupation of 
its property, and the restoration of its employes to the 
places whence they had been driven. It was ordered that 
the mails should be protected in actual transmission under 
Federal laws, and that the Chinese should be protected "at 
all hazards " under the treaty provisions. But this was 
hardly more than a preliminary step. So far as working the 
mines was concerned, the situation was still full of difficul- 
ties. Not only were such Chinese as had been brought back 
timid about re-entering the mines, but it was understood, that, 
upon the first attempt to resume work with Chinese miners, 
those employed as engineers, top-men, etc., would stop work, 
and not improbably a general strike of the employes in all 
departments would take place. Mr. Thomas Neasham, chair- 
man of the organization of employes of the company, had 
diligently devoted himself, from the beginning of the trouble, 



70 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



to the task of bringing this result about. His first appear- 
ance had been in connection with the committee of miners 
and citizens of Rock Springs, at the hearing before Mr. 
Bromley. Mr. Neasham's attitude at this time was unmis- 
takably hostile to the company. Indeed, his sympathy with 
those concerned in the outrage of Sept. 2 was so undisguised, 
and appeared so clearly both in his conduct at the first hear- 
ing and in violent expressions in interviews which he took 
pains to have published and widely circulated, that the em- 
barrassment of the company in dealing with the situation 
was greatly enhanced. 

Moreover, it was felt that if the fact should become gen- 
erally known that the military authorities construed their 
instructions so strictly that they could not interfere except 
in case of attack upon the Chinese, or actual obstruction of 
the mails, mischievous consequences might ensue. Shortly 
after his arrival at Rock Springs on the 15th, Mr. Bromley 
learned from the officer in command that this was the con- 
struction put upon the orders under which he was acting. 
A few hours later the commanding officer informed Mr. 
Bromley that instructions had been received from head- 
quarters at Omaha to protect the mines and the property 
of the company, so that the coal-supply could be maintained 
and the line kept open. 

The proposition of the u committee," that all the white 
miners be re-instated, and the Chinese kept out until the 
matter had been investigated, having been declined on the 
17th, it was reported that all the miners and mine engineers 
at Rock Springs and Almy, as well as the carpenters engaged 
in rebuilding the company's houses at Rock Springs, had 
stopped work under orders from Mr. Neasham. On the 
18th the following telegrams were exchanged between the 
Boston and Omaha offices : — 

Omaha, Neb., Sept. 18, 1885. 

C. F. Adams, Jim., Boston, Mass. 

Orders have been issued from Denver to all carpenters and other men 
at mines to stop work. I do not want to force a fight, but it seems to 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 71 



me we should dismiss every man who obeys this order, I have asked 
Government Directors who are on the ground, for their judgment. Will 
you kindly let me have yours? If we must have trouble, I know of no 
better time or issue to have it upon. 

S. E, CALLAWAY. 
Boston, Mass., Sept, 18, 1885. 

S R. Callaway, Omaha, Neb. 

We here think you too timid. The point suggested does not admit of 
a moment's consideration. Dismiss every man who stops work on order 
from Denver. In case of a general strike at any mine, close the mine, 
and do not open it until you get orders from here. 

CHARLES F. ADAMS, Jun. 

On the same day, the Government Directors, having heard 
the statements of the committee of citizens and miners, and 
looked over the whole situation, forwarded the following tel- 
egram to the Secretary of the Interior at Washington: — 

The undersigned, Government Directors of the Union Pacific Rail- 
way, pursuant to law, report that we have made investigations upon 
the spot into the alleged outrages recently occurring at this place. We 
find such a condition of affairs as in our opinion endangers the property 
of the road, jeopardizes the interest of the Government, and calls for 
prompt interference. We therefore deem it important that full author- 
ity should be given the proper officers to afford ample assistance to the 
managers in their efforts to protect the property of the company, and 
conduct the business of the road. 

The next day (Sept. 19), copies of the following notice 
were handed to all the white miners at Rock Springs. 

NOTICE. 
[Copy of Telegram.] 

Omaha, Sept. 19, 1885. 

D. O. Clark. 

This Company desires to resume the operation of its coal-mines at 
Rock Springs at the earliest possible moment. You will be good enough 
to notify all concerned that such of the striking miners and other em- 
ployes who have not been dismissed can have work at their places upon 
Monday morning next. All persons not then at work will be paid off, 
and notice given that they must not again be employed in any capacity 
in the service of this company. 

(Signed) S. R. CALLAWAY, 

General Manager Union Pacific Railway. 



72 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



Union Pacific Railway Company, Coal Department, 
Rock Springs, Wyo., Sept. 19, 1885. 
Notice is hereby given that work will be resumed in mines Nos. 1, 3, 
4, and 5, on Monday morning, Sept. 21, at seven o'clock. All miners and 
other employes are expected to return to their places at that time, with 
the assurance that they will receive while at work, and at their homes, 
such protection from the civil and military authorities as will insure 
their personal safety. 

D. O. CLARK, 
General Superintendent Coal Department. 

On Monday the 21st, in accordance with the terms of the 
above notice, an effort was made to resume work in the 
mines. The stoppage of the usual output of coal had already 
been the cause of much damage, not only to the company, 
but to a great number of business interests along the line, 
and the men employed in them. An illustration of this is 
found in the following extract from an article in " The Lar- 
amie Sentinel" of Sept. 12: — 

The riot at Rock Springs cut off the supply of coal here ; and as a 
consequence the rolling mills are shut down, and several Knights of Labor 
are thrown out of employment by it. These fifty men — more or less — 
are each four or five dollars a day out of pocket for an indefinite time by 
this enforced idleness. Saturday last an order for bolts, spikes, fish- 
plates, etc., to lay four thousand tons of rails, which had been given to 
the mill here, was countermanded, because Mr. Scrymser was obliged 
to telegraph the contractors that he was delayed in filling the order for 
want of coal. He informed us that he feared several large orders would 
be cancelled for the same reason. Thus, because it was to the interest of 
the Knights of Labor of Rock Springs to get rid of the Chinamen there, 
the Knights of Labor here will very likely be thrown out of work half the 
winter. And the effect of such an act ramifies through all departments 
of business. The freighting of thousands of tons of iron is lost to the 
Union Pacific Company ; and consequently it will not have employment 
for so many men, and thus several Knights of Labor will lose their jobs. 
The thousands of dollars which all these men would have earned if they 
had not been thrown out of employment would have gone into trade 
here, and elsewhere helped to make good times. 

The result of the first attempt to resume was, that about 
a hundred of the returned Chinamen, in a timid and hesitat- 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 73 



ing way, not knowing what might be the consequences, went 
into the mines, and began work ; but nearly all the white 
men, whose services in one capacity and another at the top 
and elsewhere were necessary in order to get the coal 
weighed and placed in cars for transportation, refused to 
resume. It became necessary to supply their places, and 
measures were accordingly taken to bring white miners at 
once from Utah and elsewhere. These were mostly Mor- 
mons, and no less objectionable than the Chinese to the men 
who had been concerned in the outbreak of Sept. 2, and who 
were now waiting to reap the fruits of it. 

While the effort to resume work was in progress, certain 
of the members of the citizens' committee were actively en 
gaged in a counter effort to keep the mines closed until the 
demands of the strikers were complied with. On the 
20th a miner named Dunn, who was apparently suspected 
of lukewarmness in the cause, was ordered to leave town 
within twenty-four hours. He made the following state- 
ment: — 

I was called upon by two miners, who waved their hands at me to 
come and speak to them. I went down the walk with them, and they 
asked me how I would like to be ordered out of the town in twenty-four 
hours I said, " I am getting sick of the whole affair, and do not care how 
soon I go.*' — " Well," he says, "the orders are that you are to leave this 
camp within twenty-four hours." — " What is that V " I said. " You are to 
leave this camp in twenty-four hours.'" Says I, "What for?" He says, 
" You are not a workingman, and you are of no use in this camp : you 
have to go.' I says, "1 believe you are mistaken, I am a w 7 orkingman ; 
more than that, I have been the workingman 's friend all my life." He 
says, " That is all right ; I spoke to you in friendship, and you have to go. 
You belong to the company, and it is through you a lot of our troubles 
have arisen." Of course I only laughed at this. He says, "In twenty- 
four hours," and away they went. About two hours afterwards I was 
reading the newspaper in the house where I stop, when in came again the 
first man ; he comes up to me and says, " You and I have had some con - 
versation to-day, and you know what it is about." I says, "Yes." — 
"Well." he says, "since I saw T you I have seen several of my friends; 
and we have talked the matter over, and we have decided that you are to 
leave the camp in twenty-four hours, and don't you forget it." I took 
the man for a very sober man. 



74 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



From the description given by Mr. Dunn, and other cir- 
cumstances, it appeared that the person who was so active in 
this matter was Mr. Vowell of the citizens' committee. Sub- 
sequently it was reported that other members of the com- 
mittee denied that Vowell had authority for his action. 

At this juncture the interference of Mr. Neasham was 
again encountered, as will be seen by the following corre- 
spondence : — 

Denver, Col., Sept. 19, 1885. 
To General Manager and the President of the Union Pacific 
Railway. 

Gentlemen, — We, the undersigned Executive Committee of Employes 
of the Union Pacific Railway, wish to submit for your consideration the 
accompanying report. We believe the matter contained in it materially 
affects our well-being, as well as the Company's interest. 

Since the introduction of Chinese labor, great discontent has prevailed 
amongst all sections of your employes. On account of their being used 
for the upsetting of time-honored usages, and the introduction of what 
we believe to be insidious innovations on our rights and liberties, have 
unsettled our minds, and is preventing the due performance of our labor. 
The working of a great system like the Union Pacific Railroad cannot 
be recklessly tampered with, as has been done, without doing harm to 
all concerned ; and we feel persuaded that as American citizens you would 
think us unworthy the name if we tamely submitted to the kind of treat- 
ment detailed in the accompanying report. 

We respectfully submit that to adequately meet the case, the removal 
of the Chinese from the system, and the removal of Beckwith, Quinn, & 
Co., and D. O. Clark, from authority, is required. Nothing less, we 
believe, will suffice to prevent a repetition of the treatment, or beget that 
feeling which we believe to be essentially necessary to subsist between 
the eompany and their employes. 

Further, if this request be complied with, we will help and assist the 
company to get good reliable white miners to fill the places of the Chi- 
nese, and do every thing that is just to help the company. 

(Signed) THOMAS NEASHAM, Chairman. 

J. N. CORB1N, Secretary. 

REPORT. 

We respectfully report that we are in possession of information that 
satisfies ns, beyond a doubt, that the white miners at Rock Springs have 
been subjected to robbery and other ill-treatment at the hands o,f super- 
intendent and mine bosses. 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 75 



First, They have been robbed of their rights, by being turned out of 
their places in the mine, and Chinese put into the same. 

Second, They have been made to work where Chinese would not work. 

Third, Their places have been bought by Chinese, giving as far as one 
hundred dollars to the mine boss for the same. 

Fourth, They have been robbed by false weights being used to weigh 
their coal. 

Fifth, They have been discharged because they refused to vote for 
Mrs. Tisdel, for school superintendent. 

Sixth, They have been compelled to buy their goods of Beckwith, 
Quinn, & Co., when they could have procured them cheaper elsewhere. 

To tell all that white miners have been subjected to by the parties 
named in our letter, would take up too much of your time to read ; and, 
knowing that you will get the evidence from another quarter, we can 
only add that we trust that you will give it your most earnest attention. 
Respectfully yours, 
(Signed) COMMITTEE OF EMPLOYES. 

Thomas Neasham, Chairman. 
J. N. Corbin, Secretary. 

The first four of the above specifications have been re- 
ferred to already. Of the fact alleged in the fifth, there was 
no evidence whatever : it was denied by Mr. Tisdel, and 
when referred to in the course of the hearing of the Govern- 
ment Directors was contemptuously dismissed by Mr. Hoyt, 
the chairman of the committee, as of no consequence. 

The only witness in support of the sixth specification was 
Mr. Chalice, who, according to his prepared statement, had 
been discharged four times, had often been compelled to run 
for his life from the Chinamen, and had been obliged to 
listen to them when they " referred to his mother in the most 
insulting terms." He had also been compelled to trade at 
Beckwith, Quinn, & Co.'s store. He neglected to say that 
he could have purchased cheaper elsewhere ; Mr. Neasham 
supplied this omission. As to the sixth specification, it may 
be said, that it was squarely contradicted by Beckwith, 
Quinn, & Co. ; and, with the exception of Chalice, there was 
no attempt to support it. 

To the communication of the committee the following 
answer was returned : - — 



76 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



Omaha, Sept. 22, 1885. 
Mr. Thomas Neasham, Chairman Executive Committee Union 
Pacific Employes, Denver. 

Dear Sir, — Your letter of Sept. 19 came duly to hand; and, as it was 
addressed to the president of the company as well as to me, it has been 
forwarded to the former gentleman at Boston, 

You say that, " since the introduction of Chinese labor, great discon- 
tent has prevailed amongst all classes of your [our] employes." You 
seem to forget that during our numerous conferences no dissatisfaction 
was ever expressed on this account ; and that at the last meeting with 
your chairman and some members of the Omaha committee, held in my 
office but a few days prior to the recent outbreak, gratification was ex- 
pressed by them at the absence of any cause for complaint, and at the 
general harmony prevailing between the managers and other employes 
of the Company. I beg also to remind you that Chinese were employed 
long before labor difficulties of any kind were known upon the Union 
Pacific, and that their employment was resorted to originally, not from 
choice, but as an absolute necessity in maintaining the road-bed and 
keeping the coal-mines in operation. 

The labor difficulties experienced by the Union Pacific Company prior 
to the recent outbreak have had no connection with, or relation to, the 
Chinese question, so far as known to me. 

You prefer certain charges against the firm of Beckwith, Quinn, & Co., 
and Mr. D. O. Clark, the general superintendent of the Coal Department, 
and demand their removal. It is the policy and purpose of the present 
management to give earnest and patient investigation and consideration 
to specific charges made against any of its officers or employes ; but it 
will demand proofs, and insist upon any party so accused having a fair 
opportunity to defend himself. In this particular case, it might also be 
well to bear in mind that these charges have been preferred by men at 
Rock Springs, who are attempting to justify to the American people a 
most atrocious massacre and wanton destruction of property. 

You also demand the removal of the Chinese from the service. When 
the company can be assured against strikes and other outbreaks at the 
hands of persons who deny its owners the right to manage their prop- 
erty, it may consider the expediency of abandoning Chinese labor; but 
under all circumstances, and at any cost or hazard, it will assert its right 
to employ whom it pleases, and refuse to ostracize any one class of its 
employes at the dictation of another. 

Yours faithfully, 
(Signed) S. R. CALLAWAY, General Manager. 

Meantime, at Rock Springs, Col. F. A. Bee, the Chinese 
consul at San Franscisco, with Wong Sic Chin, the consul 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 77 



at New York, with whom were Gen. A. D. McCook, and 
a member of his staff from Fort Douglas, were engaged in 
taking the testimony of the Chinese survivors of the mas- 
sacre, to be laid before the Imperial Government. They 
pursued their investigations for several days without moles- 
tation. During that time Gen. McCook availed himself of 
the opportunity thus afforded to study the situation, partic- 
ularly as regarded the possibility of bringing to justice the 
perpetrators of the outrages. On the 20th he sent the fol- 
lowing telegram to the Adjutant General of the Department 
of the Platte, at Omaha : — 

I have been at Rock Springs since Thursday morning, 17th. Have 
paid careful attention to all passing occurrences at this point, and am 
fully convinced that any attempted trial and punishment by the civil 
authority, United States or Territorial, of the men who murdered the 
Chinese on the 2d of September, will prove a burlesque and farce in 
the name of law and justice. The men who committed the murders are 
aliens; their murdered victims are also aliens, but under treaty protection. 
Martial law should be declared in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, the 
murderers arrested and tried by military commission. The savage bru- 
tality displayed by the fiends who did the killing, the most serious condi- 
tions, present and future, surrounding the whole business, make it my 
duty to forward this recommendation, and respectfully cite as a precedent 
the captured offenders of the Modoc War. 

The event of the trial more than justified Gen. McCook's 
prognostications. 

The Governor of the Territory, while doing every thing in 
his power to enforce the laws and bring the offenders to 
justice, was obliged to confess from the beginning the hope- 
lessness of the task. The state of public opinion on the 
subject was very clearly shown by the fact that the efforts 
made by Governor Warren to protect human life, and pre- 
serve the peace and order of the Territory, were openly de- 
nounced as evidence of his " Chinese sympathies." 

The treatment of the accused persons has already been 
referred to in some of the foregoing extracts. Some sixteen 
arrests were made, the form of a preliminary trial was gone 
through, and the men were put under bonds to appear at the 



78 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



next term of the Sweetwater County Court. " The bur- 
lesque and farce " foreshadowed by Gen. McCook began, it will 
be remembered, with the finding of a coroner's jury that the 
deceased came to their death at the hands of parties unknown. 
The proceedings of the grand jury of Sweetwater County, 
before whom the accused persons were presented for indict- 
ment, were still more remarkable as a travesty upon justice. 
A large number of witnesses were examined, but the testi- 
mony of only three was ever given to the public. These 
three were members of the Thirloway family, — the Rev. Mr. 
Thirloway, his wife and daughter. The testimony of these 
persons is so interesting a feature in the history of the case, 
that it is given here in full from the special correspondence 
of " The Cheyenne Sun." 

Timothy Thirloway, being duly sworn, made the following statement : 
"My name is Timothy Thirloway; I am a minister of the gospel, and 
recently came to Green River to take care of the new Congregational 
church building here. I was residing at Rock Springs on the 2d of 
September last, the date on which the riot occurred, and in the vicinity of 
Chinatown. On that day I heard there was a large number of men moving 
around toward the north end of Chinatown, with guns, clubs, and other 
weapons of defence. I stepped out of my house with my wife, and saw 
the first two houses that were set on fire. While we were standing there, 
I could see a number of white men on the north side of Chinatown; and 
at the same time four Chinamen came out of a house on the south-east 
part of the town, and only a short distance from us. They were about 
two hundred yards from the white men. The four Chinamen had not 
moved more than twenty yards from the house with their bundles, when 
some one called them back ; and they remained in the house two or three 
minutes before coming out again. In the mean time a volley was heard 
on the north side of Chinatown, and almost instantly the Chinamen 
rushed out of the building. They had hardly left when we saw the 
building was on fire. No white men were to be seen near the house, and 
it was my firm belief that the house was fired by the Chinamen them- 
selves My daughter, who talked with some of the Chinamen afterwards, 
can tell you more about that, and the object of the Chinamen in setting 
their houses on fire. I am quite convinced that they were fired by the 
Chinamen, inasmuch as there were no white men on the ground. The 
two houses that were first burned belonged to the railroad company, and 
were known as Nos. 15 and 16. Among the Chinamen who came out of 
No. 16, the first house set on fire, I recognized Ah Quong. 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



79 



Statement of Miss Eleanor Thirloway : "lam twenty-four years of 
age, and Timothy Thirloway is my father. I came to Rock Springs last 
December, and since February last have been giving instructions to the 
Chinese at my father's house in the evening, with the assistance of my 
sister. I think we had the confidence of the Chinese, who regarded 
us as their friends. Some of them came to us and asked for shelter dur- 
ing the trouble; but we thought they would not be safe, and advised them 
to leave the town as others were doing. Just as soon as they returned 
some of them came to see us and talked about their troubles. Ah Quong, 
who lived in the cellar of gang-house No. 16, which was the first house 
set on fire, told me that China boy was scared American boy would get 
things, and China boy set fire to the houses. He said that there was only 
one China woman in the town, and he took care of her during the riot. 
Lew Ack Sen, a nephew of Ah Say, the China interpreter, told me he had 
money under his bed, but when he came back it was all gone. He also 
told me the same facts about setting fire to the house as the other China- 
men, that they were afraid white men would find their money ; and for 
that reason the Chinese set fire to the houses. Ah Quong said, ' China 
boy no likee American boy catch im things, and China boy set fire to 
houses.' Lew Ack Sen was in Evanston at the time of the riot, but 
returned to Rock Springs a few days afterwards He brought a note for 
me to read, which stated that he would represent Ah Say in the manage- 
ment of the Chinese, and was signed by D. O. Clark. I frequently wrote 
notes for the Chinese, and in his case made a request for a pass when he 
went to Evanston. He was disposed to be very friendly, and no doubt 
most of the Chinese think we have left Rock Springs because we are 
afraid of the miners." 

Mrs. Eleanor Thirloway makes substantially the same statement as 
her husband : "I was out on the 2d of September, andjsaw some of the 
occurrences there at Rock Springs. I went with Mr. Thirloway to the 
place where he stood a little way from Chinatown. I saw four China- 
men with their blankets come out of the company's house No. 16, and 
some one call them back. They went into the house, but soon came out 
again ; and almost immediately we could see smoke coming out of the door 
of the house. In a few seconds flames burst out of the top of the house like 
the explosion of a keg of gunpowder — it went into the air like powder. 
There were no white men near the house at the time, and I firmly believe 
the Chinamen set fire to it themselves. I said to one of them afterwards, 
' Were you not afraid, if you set fire to your houses, your things would get 
burned ? ' He said, ' We put money under the road [meaning the ground] 
and it could not get burned.' Most of the Chinamen who live in dug-outs 
have dirt floors. No. 16 was the first house I saw burning, and then 
No. 15; soon after that plenty were to be seen burning." 



30 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



This remarkable testimony of the Thirloway family was 
variously commented upon by the press of the Territory. 
" The Rock Springs Independent," which was opposed to the 
Chinese miners, had the candor to say, — 

We see that a large number of papers attach undue importance to 
the testimony of Mr. Thirloway at Green River. They seem to think 
that this evidence shows that the Chinese burned all their own houses, 
and were guilty of taking the lives of those of their countrymen who were 
burned. Any thing more absurd than this could not be imagined by 
those who were actual eye-witnesses of the occurrences. While it may 
be possible that one or two houses were fired by the Chinese, as Mr. Thir- 
loway testifies, this does not prove that any more were burned by them. 
But men quite as trustworthy as Mr. Thirloway, and who were with 
him at the time these houses were set on fire, assure us that it would be 
impossible to know that the Chinese did fire them, as the white men 
were all around and in the houses at the time. 

When John Lewis says, in " The Labor Inquirer," that the Chinese 
themselves are guilty, and will probably be indicted for arson and murder- 
ing their own countrymen, he is telling what he must know is not the truth. 
If the cause of the miners requires such misrepresentation as this to gain 
sympathy and support, it must be a very weak cause indeed. But we be- 
lieve no good can come from such misrepresentation, and those who cir- 
culate such self-evident falsehoods as these are in reality injuring the 
cause they pretend to support. 

" The Cheyenne Sun," on the other hand, held that the Thir- 
loway testimony was conclusive as to the whole affair. It 
said : — 

Owing to the inaccuracy of all reports, except the first, briefly an- 
nouncing the occurrence of the riot at Rock Springs, the press of the 
country yesterday contained the first unbiassed and unmanufactured pres- 
entation- of facts through the Associated Press concerning the cause lead- 
ing thereto and the actual circumstances of it. This has not been the 
fault of the Associated Press, nor in great part of the agent at Cheyenne, 
but of the railroad officials and interested parties who were telling un- 
truths over the wires from Rock Springs. These men have endeavored 
to send throughout the United States erroneous statements, which have 
made it out that all the white miners at Rock Springs were equally guilty 
of the deeds of violence, and that the Territory of Wyoming was respon- 
sible for the acts of a handful of men at Rock Springs. It will be 
learned by this great and glorious and liberty-loving country, when the 
true facts are presented to them, that instead of the white miners as a 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 81 



class being responsible for the wrongs done at Rock Springs, only a few 
men, who were totally irresponsible, — such men as can be seen congre- 
gated in front of certain saloons on Seventeenth Street in this city, and 
who will not work if they have a chance, and who would always aid dis- 
turbance, that they may rob and steal, — that a handful of such men 
committed the real crime on the 2d of September in Rock Springs; that 
the Chinamen fired their own buildings ; and that the white miners only 
wanted to, and attempted to, drive the Chinamen out. For the actual com- 
mission of the crimes that have been charged to the white miners, they 
were not responsible, nor of those crimes were they guilty. The respon- 
sibility rests with the Union Pacific Railway Company, and the crimes 
were committed by the loafers and the Chinese. 

The failure of the grand jury of Sweetwater County to find a single 
one-of the sixteen men under arrest liable to be guilty, not even probable 
cause for holding them in custody being established, although nearly 
thirty witnesses were examined, — this failure substantiates the truth of 
the allegation "The Sun" now makes after the investigation, as even it 
made it before. The white miners are exonerated both before the law 
and in the eyes of the public ; and the Union Pacific Company, the 
thieves and loafers whom it allowed to hang around in Rock Springs, 
and its Chinese pets, are justly placed under the gravest suspicion. 

This paper consistently accepted its own logic, and insisted 
that "if we have laws, they should be enforced" against the 
Chinamen who had burned their own houses, and killed 
themselves. This is its conclusion : — 

The fear of what will be said of us has been a great bugbear in this 
Rock Springs business, but it is to be hoped that it will not deter the offi- 
cers of the Sweetwater-county court from doing their whole duty. The 
evidence that w : as submitted to the grand jury was certainly sufficient to 
cause the bringing-in of a "true bill" against Ah Quong and others for 
arson, if not for causing the loss of coolies' lives. If we have laws, they 
should be enforced. John is a natural fire-bug, and on several occasions 
has started fires in Cheyenne that threatened its destruction. If any 
thing goes wrong with him, he resorts to an illumination ; and he has so 
little to lose, that he evidently enjoys it. . . . 

The Union Pacific may have to see its pet Chinamen upon the gal- 
lows it erected for the white miners. Thus history may repeat itself. 

Much stress was laid upon the circumstance that Mr. 
Thirloway was a " minister of the gospel," and that his fam- 
ily had the confidence of the Chinese, who, as Miss Thirlo- 
way says, came to them during the trouble, and asked for 



82 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



shelter. But the lady adds, "We thought they would not 
be safe, and advised them to leave town as others were do- 
ing." For hundreds of miles around Rock Springs there is 
nothing but a barren desert. Leaving town meant starva- 
tion in those inhospitable wastes. 

It was the good fortune of some of this unfortunate race 
that there resided at Green River, where she held the 
position of superintendent of the Pacific Hotel Company's 
establishment, — a woman of somewhat different mettle, who, 
when asked for shelter, did not advise the applicants to leave * 
town, because she " thought they would not be safe." Im- 
mediately following the outbreak at Rock Springs, she was 
informed that she must dismiss the Chinamen employed in 
domestic service in the house. She' says in her letter, giving 
an account of the transaction : — 

I told one and all that the boys should stay, and I would protect 
them. Thursday night I had a man watch the house outside. Friday 
morning a China boy came into the lunch-room, and asked for Jim, our 
pastry-cook, and told him that a shoemaker had been down there, and 
told him all must leave ; and he had come up to warn my boys. I told 
the man to stay, and not leave for any one, and told my boys I would 
protect them if they staid. They were like a lot of children, and 
believed and obeyed as such. I at once sent Mr. Judges to see the man, 
and instructed him to find out who had authorized him to tell them they 
must leave. He said the Knights of Labor, and the people said so. I at 
noon told several of the railroad men, who are Knights, what had been 
clone, and sent for the Knight in charge here, and I guess talked, for he 
afterwards said he thought a cyclone had struck him. He said he had 
not authorized any one to send them away, and was sorry such had been 
done. He assured me that if there was such action on the part of the 
order, they would give me a week's notice. I told him I would not re- 
ceive such notice, and they should stay, and we would protect them. 
He said the only thing they would do would be to boycott the house. 
I told him, that, while we should regret such an affair, we would still run 
the house. Many came in to talk of it (sent 1 felt sure); and to one and 
all 1 said that I did not mean to allow any one to run this house, and 
that I would keep the boys. Had we given up, and sent the boys away, 
they would have sent all in town out; but when it was known that we 
did not intend to have any nonsense, they gave in. 

Wednesday evening, one of the men that chased the Chinamen came 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 83 



into the office and sat down. He was half drunk and ugly. I staid 
inside the office, but was called out for a minute, and when I came back 
found him in the dining-room going out in the back part of the house. 
I asked him what he wanted, and he said he was just looking round. I 
took him by the shoulder, and told him to look round outside, and walked 
him out of doors. The crowd were outside waiting for him, but I guess 
thought best to leave. I was so mad that I felt as big as any other 
man. 

As was expected, the grand jury failed to find a true 
bill against the accused persons. The facts of the murders 
and outrages being too notorious to be disputed, the grand 
jury returned the following finding, putting the chief re- 
sponsibility for the outbreak upon the railwa}^ company and 
its officers : — - 

We, the grand jurors empanelled in and for said county at the Sep- 
tember, 1885, term of the third district court, would respectfully report 
that we have examined into all offences that have been brought to our 
attention, or are within our knowledge, and have presented bills of indict- 
ment where the evidence would warrant such finding. We have dili- 
gently inquired into the occurrence at Rock Springs on the second day 
of September last ; and, though we have examined a large number of 
witnesses, no one has been able to testify to a single criminal act com- 
mitted by any known white person on that day. Whatever crimes may 
have been committed there on the 2d of September, the perpetrators 
thereof have not been disclosed by the evidence before us ; and therefore, 
while we deeply regret the circumstances, we are wholly unable, acting 
under the obligations of our oaths, to return indictments. We have also 
inquired into the causes that led to the outbreak at Rock Springs. 
While we find no excuse for the crimes committed, there appears to be 
no doubt abuses existed there that should have been promptly adjusted 
by the railroad company and its officers. If this had been done, the fair 
name of our Territory would not have been stained by the terrible events 
of the 2d of September. 

At a large public meeting subsequently held at Rawlins, 
Mr. H. C. Brown of Laramie, the lawyer retained on behalf 
of the accused, was reported in the papers as saying, — 

He had been counsel for the miners in the recent trial of sixteen of 
their number at Green River, charged by the railroad company with the 
commission of almost every crime known under the statute, and knew 
more than any other man could possibly know of the incidents of Sept. 
2. Of the four Chinamen shot he could state, without violating any 



84 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPRINGS. 



legal confidence, that a woman with a child on one arm dealt death from 
a revolver to two of them, and that the other two were killed by men 
now outside of the boundaries of the United States. He explained 
fully the fight in the mine, the process of warning the heathen to leave, 
and the firing of their huts by themselves, all of which was proven 
before the grand jury, and resulted in the acquittal of the miners 
charged with multitudinous offences. 

The report concludes as follows: — 

Mr. Brown closed with an eloquent peroration, in which he urged on 
the good work of purifying the country of the blighting influence of 
monopoly and its attendant slavery, and predicted final success, though 
some earnest advocates would probably go down in the contest; for no 
great good was ever accomplished without some sacrifice. As for him- 
self, he "had enlisted for the war," and would "fight it out on that line 
if it took all summer " and all he had. 

That the " eloquent peroration " of Mr. Brown was not 
without results, appears from the passage of a series of reso- 
lutions, among them the following : — 

Resolved, That we regard the occurrences at Rock Springs on the 2d of 
September, as a misfortune and disaster to be regretted by a law-abiding 
people but we charge the responsibility therefor upon the Union Pacific 
Railroad Company and its officers. 

Resolved, That we commend the forbearance of the white miners at 
Rock Springs, in long submitting to unjust impositions heaped upon 
them by the Union Pacific Railroad officials, as well as the disposition 
manifested by them since the 2d of September to right their wrongs by 
lawful means. 

Resolved, That we consider the presence of Federal bayonets at Rock 
Springs and Evanston not a necessity for the protection of either life or 
property, but a power wielded solely in the interest of a grasping corpora- 
tion, to force a revolting system of slave-labor upon the country ; and as a 
free people we protest against the use of the army for this unlawful pur- 
pose, and demand its discontinuance. 

At a meeting at Green River, the county seat, at a date 
shortly prior to the above, the following resolutions were 
passed : — - 

Resolved, That we recognize the disaster at Rock Springs on the 2d of 
September, A.D. 1885, as a misfortune to our people, and a stain upon 
our reputation as a law-abiding people, but we are not insensible to the 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 85 



cause of that outbreak, and we charge its responsibility upon the Union 
Pacific Railway Company and its officers. 

Resolved, That we firmly believe that Federal bayonets have been 
ordered to Rock Springs and other places in the Territory, under a misap- 
prehension of the facts. The false representations have been wilfully 
made by the interested officials of the Union Pacific Railway Company 
and their paid tools, in order to secure the presence of the army at Evan- 
ston and Rock Springs, and to secure its maintenance. That we fully 
recognize the fact that Federal bayonets are not present at those places to 
protect either life or property, but are there solely in the interest of a 
grasping corporation, to force a system of slave-labor upon the Territory, 
and to force these poor Chinamen into the mines against their will. 

Resolved, Therefore, that we, as a people, protest against the use of 
the army for this unlawful purpose, and demand its withdrawal. 

The general tone of the newspaper press of the Territory 
is fairly illustrated by the following editorial article from 
u The Laramie Boomerang.'' "The Cheyenne Sun," intro- 
ducing it as its own leading article, says : — 

''The Boomerang," which is a fearless champion of the people's 
rights, thus voices public sentiment, and tells a large instalment of 
truth : — 

" It is stated upon reliable authority that the Union Pacific intends to 
let the Chinese all out, but that the bull-headed managers at Omaha don't 
wish the fact known until they have proven they can do as they please. 
It should be distinctly understood that Boss Callaway and his aids in 
Omaha are determined to show the Western people that they are the 
rulers, and will trample the Western men under their feet until they have 
convinced them that they can't help themselves. It is enough to make 
blood run from a stone to hear of the insolence of these aristocrats. It 
is a shame to the civilization of the West, that they and their agents can 
bulldoze the people of a Territory like this. The quicker Adams, Cal- 
laway, and the rest of the gang are fired, the better it will be for the 
country. 

The grand jury of Sweetwater County, which has just adjourned, has 
exhibited great sense in their report; and experience will show that nine- 
tenths of the people in Wyoming are enlisted in the warfare against the 
monopoly, which has downed this Territory, and now tries to imprison its 
citizens for crimes which are directly chargeable to its officials. 

The Union Pacific is responsible for the backward state of affairs in 
Western Wyoming. Rock Springs, with its grand coal-mines, should be 
a city of six to ten thousand inhabitants : it is a miserable Chinatown of 
twelve hundred population. Carbon, Green River, and Evanston, all 



86 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



important points, are dwarfed by the same influence. The Territory 
itself has been choked nearly to death by this octopus. But its days 
have been numbered, and the desperate utterances of its officials and 
agents show that the company sees the dawn of the day of doom at hand. 

These utterances and appeals, though unsuccessful in their 
main object, — to initiate a strike of all the employes of the 
company, and bring its business to a standstill, — served to 
keep matters unsettled, and seriously obstruct the efforts to 
resume work in the mines. The white miners at Rock 
Springs for the most part rejected the offer of the company 
made on Sept. 19, to furnish transportation free to all lately 
employed by the company, who should apply therefor by 
Saturda}^ the 26th, being deluded b}^ such utterances as have 
been quoted, as well as by the assurances of Mr. Neasham, 
into the belief that the company would evenfually surrender 
unconditionally. 

Meanwhile the number of miners at Rock Springs was 
increased as rapidly as possible, and cutting-machines were 
introduced ; so that by the 1st of December the number of 
those at work was 532, of whom 457 were Chinamen and 85 
white. According to Superintendent Clark's statement, on 
the last of August, or about the time of the outbreak, there 
were 481 miners employed, of whom 331 were Chinese, and 
150 white men. Of men employed by the day and month, 
including carpenters, masons, engineers, pit-bosses, extra 
men, etc., there were 310, of whom 95 were Chinese em- 
ployed inside the mines. The total number of employes was 
842, of whom 290 were white men and 552 Chinese. The 
output of the mines at Rock Springs on the 30th of August 
was 1,450 tons ; on the 30th of November it was 1,610 tons. 

On the 1st of October the miners at Carbon, where no 
Chinese were employed, went out on a strike, after sending 
to the mining superintendent at that place the following 
communication : — 

Carbon, Oct. 1, 1885. 
Mr. Meyers, Superintendent Union Pacific Coal Department, Carbon. 

At a meeting of the Progress Assembly, the following resolutions 
were passed : That the workingmen of Carbon do not go to work until 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 87 



every Chinaman along the Union Pacific road is discharged ; and, also, 
that every white man that is not found guilty of any crime against the 
Jaws of Wyoming Territory shall be reinstated ; also, that the Union 
Pacific sever all connections with Beckwith, Quinn, & Co. ; also, that we 
demand the discharge of James Tisdel. 

JOHN PARKER, 
R. WIGGENS, 
CHARLES G. SMITH, 
Committee of Arbitration Board. 

Carbon, Wyo., Oct. 1, 1885. 

L. Meyers, Superintendent. 

Dear Sir, — At a meeting held by the workmen of No. 5 mine, we 
demand that the Chinese must go from the employment of the company, 
and J. M. Tisdel and W. R. Gardner; and all white men that there are 
no charge of misdemeanor against get their work back again. 

Signed by Workmen oe No. 5 Mine. 

The mines at Carbon were accordingly closed. 

"The Evanston Chieftain," a very decided sympathizer 
with the anti-Chinese movement, characterized the Carbon 
strike as "A Suicidal Move," under which head it spoke as 
follows : — 

It is extremely discouraging to men who are making an honest effort 
in behalf of the white miners, to have that same class kick the whole pot 
over, and spill the contents in the fire, just as the coveted dish is ready to 
serve. This is just about the condition of affairs as we go to press this 
morning. On Thursday morning the Union Pacific opened up mine 
No. 4 at Almy, with all white miners. Yesterday morning Newell Bee- 
man, Esq., superintendent of the Central Pacific mines here, opened up 
No. 2, and set a full force of white miners to work. Every thing appear- 
ing to be working lovely, and all classes were elated by a prospect of 
getting rid of John Chinaman. In the next moment we get news that 
all the white miners at Carbon, about four hundred white men, in a 
camp where no Chinamen have ever been employed, are out on a strike. 
They have, we are told, laid down their tools and walked out in a body, 
refusing to work, and refusing to give any reason for their act. It is 
thought that they are acting from some order of the Miners' Union in 
Colorado, in which State there is also a strike. This course of the Car- 
bon miners, just at this critical moment, is suicidal in the extreme. It 
places the strongest kind of a weapon in the hands of the railway com- 
pany, and will go far in the eyes of the whole country to prove that 
white miners cannot be depended upon when the company is under heavy 



88 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



bonds to fill large contracts of coal. It appears to us that the Carbon 
strike is the work of the Devil in the interests of the Chinamen. Now, 
let any sane man tell us what is the railway company to do, except one 
of three things? — either yield all their business rights to the Colorado 
miners ; or abandon their mines, and forfeit all their bonds on contracts, 
and become bankrupt ; or hire John Chinaman. By the action of Car- 
bon, they are forced into this position, and the intelligent people of the 
whole civilized world will so view the situation. 

About the same time the following communication was 
received from the mines at Louisville, Col. : — 

Louisville, Col., Oct. 2, 1885. 

To L. J. Welch, Esq. 

The following is a list of grievances which the Louisville miners desire 
to have presented to the Union Coal Company : — 

First, That we want "entry" price for the "turning" of "rooms," 
and "driving*' of "crosscuts." 

Second, That we want pay for all screened coal put upon mine cars by 
miners, no more twenty-one hundred restriction ; but we will allow the 
company the right to put up gauges for the protection of their cars. 

Third, That the company must place all necessary timbers in or at the 
working faces, not places of the mine, or pay miners the sum of one 
dollar per lineal yard extra for the placing of timber in or at said places. 

Fourth, That we demand the discharge of the " white Chinamen " of 
this mine, a list of whom will be given the company when they request a 
settlement. 

Fifth, That no local settlement will be made, but that we demand a 
general settlement of " Rock Springs " grievances as well as that of 
Louisville. 

Sixth, That all grievances now existing, or that may hereafter arise, 
be settled by the " Conciliation Board ; " the decisions of which will be 
binding upon miners and company alike. 

(Signed) LOUISVILLE MINERS. 

. The Louisville mines were closed accordingly. 

The striking miners at those two points were encouraged 
in the position they had taken, by reports that they would 
be supported by the Miners' Union throughout the country. 
The following from 44 The Cheyenne Sun," of Oct. 11, indi- 
cates the information by which they were deceived. 

Private despatches of a reliable character were received in Cheyenne 
last evening, stating that the coal miners in Iowa and Missouri, employed 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT BOCK SPBIXGS. 



89 



in mines from which coal has been of late furnished to the Union Pacific, 
have refused to continue work if the product is to be sold or disposed of 
in any way to the latter company. 

This act is in obedience to instructions from the executive committee 
of the National Miners' Union. The National Union has, contemporary 
to the above instructions, sent circulars to the officers of every coal com- 
pany in the United States, requesting that no coal be furnished to the 
Union Pacific Railway Company. 

The conclusion of the whole matter may be found in the 
following letter : — 

Headquarters Executive Board Union Pacific Employes, 
Denver, Col., Nov. 12, 1885. 

S. R. Callaway, General Manager Union Pacific Railway, Omaha. 

Dear Sir, — Yours of the 10th, asking us to send in writing any sug- 
gestions we wish to make in regard to the miners, is at hand. In answer 
w T e wish to call your attention to the following: — 

We only come to you at this time at the earnest request of the miners 
who went out on strike Oct. 1. 

We wish first to state that these miners went out contrary to our wish 
and advice ; and we endeavored to show their representatives wherein we 
believed this would be a mistake, and how we believed a satisfactory 
understanding could be reached with the company, without action of this 
kind. Xow they see their mistake, and are willing to return to work 
under the same conditions as when they came out. 

Xow, we do not believe these men are as much to blame as some may 
believe. The excitement that was occasioned by the massacre of the 
Chinese at Rock Springs caused all of this trouble. We do not believe 
the men at Carbon and Louisville really understood the circumstances 
connected with the trouble at Rock Springs : hence we think the company 
should take this into consideration, and allow the miners to return to 
work. 

We learned to-night that this was offered to the miners at Carbon, 
and that they will return to work to-morrow. We would earnestly ask 
that an opportunity be given at once to the men at Louisville to return to 
work. Further, we would call your attention to the condition of some of 
the miners at Almy. These men did not come out on strike, and have 
showed no disposition to fight the company, having acted as men should ; 
yet they are not allowed to work, nor can they go to work for the Cen- 
tral Pacific Company, because the Union Pacific superintendent will not 
give them the required permit. We believe this to be unjust under the 
circumstances. 

In regard to the Rock Springs men, we would ask you, in their behalf, 



90 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



to consider the circumstances connected with the trouble there, and al low- 
such men as remain there to resume work under the same conditions as 
we ask for the others ; thus have regular work resumed in all mines on the 
system, which we believe is the wish of all employes and citizens through- 
out the West. 

In behalf of the miners, 

We are respectfully, 
(Signed), J. N. CORBIN", 

Secretary Executive Board Union Pacific Employes. 

Meanwhile, a form of petition was extensively circulated, 
and very generally signed, throughout the region traversed 
by the Union Pacific and its auxiliary lines. It read as 
follows : — 

A PLEA FOR FREE LABOR. 
PETITION. 

To the President and Board of Directors of the Union Pacific 
Railroad. 

Gentlemen, — We, the undersigned employes of the Union Pacific Rail- 
road, located at Denver, Col., do petition your honorable board to remove 
from your employ all Chinese labor. If it is the right aspiration for every 
citizen to be independent and free, — that is, not subject to arbitrary 
power, but dependent only upon just laws, — the same mast inevitably 
appear right to him in his capacity as workman. This cannot harmonize 
with slave-labor, as it is practised in connection with the Chinese in your 
employ. Therefore we pray your honorable board to take immediate 
steps to remove the same from our midst. 

The above document, bearing the signatures of many 
thousand persons dwelling between the Missouri River and 
Salt Lake, reached the Boston offices of the company on the 
27th of November. The following reply to it was in due 
time returned. Those to whom it was addressed did not 
make the reply public. 

Union Pacific Railway Company, Equitable Building, 
Boston, Mass., Dec. 16, 1885. 

J. 1ST. Corbin, Esq., and others, Denver, Col. 

Gentlemen, — Referring to your letter of Nov. 21, forwarding a numer- 
ously signed petition, and my own acknowledgment thereof of Nov. 27, I 
have to inform you that the documents were laid before the Board of 
Directors of this company at a regular meeting held to-day. 



THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 91 



The directors, I am instructed to say, consider that a petition so gen- 
erally signed by its employes, and others dwelling upon the line of the 
Union Pacific, should receive from them the most careful and respectful 
consideration. They fully sympathize in the aspirations referred to in 
the heading of the present document, that "every citizen should be inde- 
pendent and free ; not subject to arbitrary power." But the petition 
further adds that these things "cannot harmonize with slave-labor as it 
is practised in connection with the Chinese in your [the company's] 
employ ; and, for the reason thus specified, asks that immediate steps 
be taken "to remove the same from our [your] midst." 

It is apparent from the words above quoted that those signing the 
petition have done so under a misapprehension as to facts. The term 
" slave-labor '' can in no respect be more correctly applied to the rela- 
tions between this company and its Chinese employes, than to the relations 
between this company and those of its employes who are Americans or 
any other nationality. All are paid the same way. All are equally 
free to leave the service of the company ; and if they leave the service 
of the company, it is equally impossible for the company to reclaim 
them, or exact enforced labor from them. Among the twenty thousand 
Union Pacific employes are between three hundred and four hundred 
Asiatics. The number fluctuates somewhat, but has not been increased 
recently. The Chinese, like all other employes of the company, — Amer- 
ican, European, or African, — work under contracts voluntarily entered 
into, and which can be terminated by them or by the company at any 
time. 

These facts, which it is evident from the wording of the petition the 
signers therof were not aware of, would seem to remove the alleged cause 
of complaint; thus rendering further action unnecessary. The Union 
Pacific Railway Company is a corporation chartered by the National 
Government. As such, its directors do not feel that it is within their 
province to discriminate against persons of any nationality, color, or sect. 
The only question its directors and officers have a right to ask is, whether 
the company's employes are competent, faithful, economical, and quali- 
fied to perform the duties for which they contract, and are paid. I re- 
main, 

Very truly yours, 
(Signed) CHARLES F. ADAMS, Jun., 

President. 

To briefly sum up : In the outbreak of Sept. 2, twenty- 
two men were killed, and their bodies recovered ; twenty-six 
more have since been missing. They doubtless died in the 
hills from wounds and exposure. A considerable amount of 
property was burned. No one has been punished. 



92 THE CHINESE MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 



The company was subjected to prolonged suspension of 
its mining operations, to an extension of the trouble to 
other points, and to a general disturbance of its business by 
a threatened strike all along the line and in all its depart- 
ments. Measured in money, the injury thus done was very 
considerable, seriously affecting the year's results. 

The position taken by the company at the outset, and 
adhered to throughout, was that under no circumstances 
could it enter into any negotiation with the men who had 
been guilty of these crimes, or with any one in their behalf. 



CHINESE MASSACRE 

AT • • > 

ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING TERRITORY, 



SEPTEMBER 2, 1885. 



BOSTON : 

FRANKLIN PRESS : RAND, AVERY, & COMPANY, 
117 Franklin Street. 
1886. 



r 



